Three Central Seminary faculty will be named to endowed chairs on Nov. 14 (l-r): David M. May, Ruth Dorothy Lofgren Rosell, and John S. Park.
Central Seminary will celebrate the naming of three of its faculty members to endowed faculty chairs in an installation service on Nov. 14.
Dr. John S. Park, will hold the Des Peres Chair of Congregational Health; Dr. David M. May will hold the Landreneau Guillory Chair of Biblical Studies; and Dr. Ruth Dorothy Lofgren Rosell, the Dianne C. Shumaker Chair of Peace and Justice.
Park will hold the chair previously held by Dr. Heather Entrekin, now retired. The Des Peres Chair of Congregational Health is funded through a gift from the Des Peres Baptist Church. The American Baptist (USA) church dissolved in the St. Louis, Mo., area and invested its assets in future church leaders through Central Seminary.
Park has been serving as the Des Peres Assistant Professor of Congregational Health and director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Central since July 2017. He is now being officially installed.
The Landreneau Guillory Chair of Biblical Studies and the Dianne C. Shumaker Chair of Peace and Justice are both newly-endowed chairs.
The Landreneau Guillory Chair is named for the maternal grandparents of Central Trustee Rev. Angela Lowe, Paul and Odette Landreneau Guillory. May has been serving in the role of Professor of New Testament since 1994. In 2017 he became the director of the Master of Arts (Theological Studies) as well.
The Dianne C. Shumaker Chair is being funded through a gift from friend of the seminary. Dianne C. Shumaker previously provided funds for the Shumaker Library on the Central campus and has helped to support the seminary’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.
Rosell began serving on the Central faculty in 2005 in a shared position in pastoral theology. In May of this year Rosell took on new roles as director of Contextualized Learning and as the director of the Buttry Center for Peace and Nonviolence, as well as continuing her role as Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology/Counseling.
Seminary Provost Robert E. Johnson noted that “their recognition is truly deserved.”
“Endowed chairs promote academic excellence by supporting innovative scholarship and practice of ministry,” he explained, “raising the quality standards for advancement of Central’s mission; promoting research collaboration beyond the seminary community; mentoring newer faculty; and providing expertise to churches, judicatories, and others as opportunity arises.”
“I am deeply gratified to see these three faculty colleagues hereby honored for their years of dedicated and sacrificial service, as well as their ongoing commitment to excellence in the advancement of Central’s educational mission.”
The installation service will feature the three faculty members each speaking about their vision for the chairs to which they are being named. The service will take place in the Baugh-Marshall Chapel on the seminary campus in Shawnee, Kansas.
