Good morning,
On Easter Monday, 75 active and retired clergy from the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church gathered in the Pearce Hospitality Suite for continuing education and fellowship. This year's event inaugurated our annual continuing education for clergy as the Boyd Institute. We were pleased to have Robert F. "Bob" Boyd in attendance to be recognized for his vast contributions to the College and the Methodist Church.
Our guest speaker was Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker, who gave a presentation entitled "The Future Identity and Mission of the Church." Bishop Whitaker's two-day lecture focused on the biblical origins of the church and the first 300 years of the primitive church. Bishop Whitaker proposed that through an understanding of how early Christians practiced their faith, the present-day church can find its new and future role. Christianity wasn't always the religion of the culture, and we find ourselves looking into a future where Christianity appears to be replaced more and more by pluralism and secularism within Western culture. By accepting that Christian practices and values are no longer the ways of the majority, Bishop Whitaker noted that "the church's true identity and mission are not derived from the shape of the culture but from the shape of the revealed gospel." Participants received one continuing education unit for attending. A complete photo gallery from the event is available
here.
By moving the seminar from the week of Spring Break to the week after, we were able to showcase the vibrant campus life at Virginia Wesleyan to our participants. I want to especially thank students from Marlin Ministries for their help with worship and prayer throughout the two days, along with Chaplain Greg West. It was wonderful to show leaders of the Methodist Church that the spiritual life that is so ingrained in the College's heritage is still very much alive on campus today.
We are excited to welcome Dr. Ben Witherington, a prominent New Testament scholar and author, to campus on April 3-4, 2017 for the Boyd Institute continuing education for clergy. We will work to grow the Institute in capacity and opportunity as we move forward.
I wish to thank Kelly Roenker, Assistant to the Vice President for Advancement & Coordinator of the Robert F. Boyd Institute, and Chaplain Greg West, for their leadership of this program.
