Bethany College announces establishment of Buffalo Seminary
BETHANY, W.Va. – Bethany College announces the establishment of Buffalo Seminary, a continuing education arm of the college designed to strengthen Bethany’s relationship with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and to cultivate the college’s unique heritage. The seminary will function as a unit of Bethany College’s Center for Institutional Advancement. Its primary purpose will be to promote a strong association with the Disciples of Christ, as well as the larger Church, through an on-going series of lectures and workshops designed to meet the educational needs of clergy and laity. Through newsletters and web communication, as well as a variety of leadership development programs, Buffalo Seminary seeks to encourage transformational ministry in the new millennium.
Buffalo Seminary will also be responsible for the preservation and sharing of Bethany College’s Campbell heritage, including oversight of the Campbell Mansion, archives, Brush Run and Campbell Cemetery.
Buffalo Seminary staff will include a dean, director of the Bethany heritage program and Campbell archivist, adjunct lecturer in religious studies and director of summer workshops for commissioned ministers and work-study students.
Bethany College is a small college of national distinction located on a picturesque and historic 1,300-acre campus in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. Founded in 1840, Bethany is the state’s oldest private college.
“Our new Buffalo Seminary in Bethany College, like the one Alexander Campbell began at home in 1818, will prepare church leaders – laity and clergy – for ministry in changing times,” stated Dr. Larry Grimes, director of church relations and emeritus professor of English at Bethany. “The new Buffalo Seminary will offer innovative, short-term educational programs designed to connect churches with their rich Campbell heritage through history, archives and artifacts and to build bridges into new dimensions of ministry in the 21st century. At Buffalo Seminary, Bethany will join hands with Disciples churches and the DOC Regions around us to ponder and prepare powerful ministries that will bring wholeness to our fragmented world.”