California Swing—Pasadena

On March 13th my colleagues and I from some of the other seven ELCA seminaries gathered for lunch with ELCA students studying at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. We were also joined by Rev. Ray Kibler, who is an ELCA pastor serving in Pasadena and liaison for the ELCA students at Fuller; and Rev. Clay Schmit, director of Fuller Theological Seminary's Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts, who is also an ELCA pastor.

ELCA students studying for the Master of Divinity degree at a non-ELCA seminary will need to affiliate with an ELCA seminary in order to complete educational and internship requirements for ordination in the ELCA. My colleagues and I met with these students to inform them about the affiliation process and answer any questions.

The wonderful thing about affiliation is that it allows prospective students who do not live within close proximity of an ELCA seminary, or who, because of personal circumstances, are not able to move onto a campus to study at an ELCA seminary, the opportunity to complete most of their studies at a non-ELCA accredited seminary in their area. It may not be the ideal, but it certainly is a helpful option for those for whom distance and family commitments are considerable barriers to pursuing seminary study. Over the years, the ELCA seminaries have created very good working relationships with non-ELCA seminaries in order to make affiliation much more streamlined.