100 years of calling, equipping, and sending Christian educators

This November 3-5, Union Presbyterian Seminary (UPSem) will be celebrating 100 years of calling, equipping, and sending Christian educators.

In early November 1914, the Assembly’s Training School for Lay Workers (ATS) was established in the Ginter Park Section of Richmond, directly across Brook Road from Union Theological Seminary.

Though the name was later changed to the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (PSCE), and though the institution later federated with Union Theological Seminary to form the new entity that is Union Presbyterian Seminary, the mission has remained the same: to prepare the finest Christian educators for service in the church.

For the past 100 years, through the work of ATS, PSCE, and now UPSem, Christian educators have written curriculum, programmed church activities, established church schools, transmitted the faith to younger generations, and provided a host of leadership abilities in churches across the United States and around the globe.

A Centennial Celebration committee has been commissioned by UPSem to recognize this wonderful history of preparing Christian educators. The committee’s work will culminate this November in a series of worship, recreational, historical, and, of course, teaching events that will commemorate ATS/PSCE’s legacy in the life and work of the church.

The seminary’s board of trustees will be on campus during the celebration not only to recognize ATS/PSCE’s past but to emphasize UPSem’s commitment to Christian education as one of the foci of the seminary’s strategic vision for its future work.

The seminary has initiated a capital campaign that prioritizes the strengthening of the Christian education program. Two fundraising initiatives specifically target this agenda: the calling of two new faculty chairs in Christian education for the Richmond campus and the establishment of a Global Center for Christian Education.

UPSem remains committed to its signature dual degree (M.Div. and M.A.C.E.), which ensures that its graduates, whether members of the PC(USA) or of one of the many other denominations represented in our student body, are ready to be true teaching elders in their congregations — fully prepared, fully equipped pastor-educators.

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