The Meadville Lombard Theological School, located in Chicago, is a Unitarian Universalist seminary.
It is a result of a merger in the 1930s between a Unitarian and a Universalist institution. Meadville Lombard is one of two Unitarian Universalist seminaries and offers the following graduate degree programs: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Religion, Doctor of Ministry, and the Dual Degree of Master of Divinity/Master of Arts in Leadership Studies. The school's mission is to educate ministers to serve in Unitarian Universalists congregations or wherever else they are called to serve. These degree programs are open to students of all faith traditions.
The Meadville Theological School was founded in 1844 in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Most of the original funding came from a recent convert to Unitarianism, a wealthy businessman named Harm Jan Huidekoper. One of its best-known alumni was Jenkin Lloyd Jones, who later played a prominent role in the growth of the Western Unitarian Convention.
The Meadville Theological School moved to Chicago and became affiliated with the University of Chicago in 1926. It began construction on its permanent building in 1929. With the failure of Ryder Divinity School and Lombard College in 1930, the Lombard charter moved to Meadville Theological School in Chicago, and the institution became known as the Meadville Lombard Theological School. The school is unique as it has "one of only three in Illinois granting full tax-exempt status in perpetuity for all college-owned property. Monmouth College and Northwestern University have the other two."[1]
Meadville Lombard is distinctive because of the caliber of its faculty, including world-renowned ethicist Dr. Sharon D. Welch, Dr. Michael Hogue (2008 recipient of the Templeton Award for Theological Promise), as well as graduates and affiliated Faculty members the Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz and the Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed.
The school offers four full-tuition scholarships based on merit, and provides students with generous amounts of institutional financial aid.
The school is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. The Meadville Lombard Educational Model will commence with students entering the Master of Divinity degree program in Fall 2009. The model blends traditional (and rigorous) academic learning with experiential learning in community and congregational settings.
Meadville Lombard said its trustees decided to place its campus in Chicago for sale as a means to liquidate its assets, expanding its options financially and placing it on the path to jettison an increasingly large list of deferred maintenance needs. The school relocated to Chicago's downtown Loop in December of 2011. http://www.meadville.edu/Ab_News_loopmove.html
In 2010, Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton Theological School, a seminary in Newton, Massachusetts affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ, announced plans to create a "new university-style institution" based at Andover Newton's campus, with an interfaith model for theological education.[2] Meadville Lombard would have become the Unitarian Universalist college in the new theological university. The two schools, Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton, announced they were seeking additional partners for the proposed institution.[3] They announced their intention to form the new university as a legal entity by June 15, 2011, but the two institutions withdrew from the plan in April 2011, citing issues related to governance and finances.[4]
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