Experts say what is at stake in a dispute that has become increasingly bitter is nothing less than the future direction of the seminary as it confronts the challenges of the 21st Century.
The brief statement said Patterson will be president emeritus, "for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary". He will receive compensation and may live on campus as "theologian-in-residence" at a brand new Baptist Heritage Center, the statement said.
Generous to a fault and utterly disciplined with regard to himself, possessed by hope and drawn forward by belief in the immensity of God's future, John Marks Templeton was the Seminary's greatest benefactor.
"Scottish ministers asked Historic Environment Scotland for advice on potential options for the future of the former seminary, and the wider site.
We also can arrange for students to meet their future customers in the seminary to whom they have to present their products, or a venture capital fund manager with whom they have to negotiate in front of the audience.
Two of its most far-reaching provisions were the requirement that every diocese provide for the proper education of its future clergy in Catholic seminaries and the requirement that the clergy, and especially the bishops, give more attention to the task of preaching.
He frequently spoke at seminaries advising future priests to express their faith by putting Catholic social teachings into practice by helping to organize their parishioners rather than doling out charity.
A businessperson who had switched careers, moved by spirituality, she confided to me that she had not quite realized when she was in seminary that her future was not to be exclusively contemplative or given over to pastoral care.
Sister Katarina Schuth, author of the 1999 book "Seminaries, Theologates, and the Future of the Church Ministry," said strict traditionalists were having an increasing influence in seminaries, though they might not represent a greater share of students.
The future bride graduated from the Friends Seminary in Manhattan and attended Sarah Lawrence College.
