Louisville, KY,– Dr. John M. Mulder will receive the Ernest Trice Thompson Award at the 214th meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church when it meets in Columbus, Ohio, in June. Mulder was selected to receive the award for his service to the church – local, denominational and ecumenical – as a Presbyterian minister, seminary president, educator, historian, journalist and churchman. The award honors the memory of the founder of The Presbyterian Outlook.

During his 21-year tenure as president of Louisville Seminary, Mulder has been a leading force for promoting scholarly research in the field of mainstream Protestantism, including the Presbyterian Church, at the same time he has continued to strengthen significantly the faculty, program and capital plant of the Seminary. Under his leadership the city of Louisville has become a major Presbyterian center in the United States.

Kentuckiana Metroversity recognized the exceptional teaching efforts of Dr. Stephen G. Ray, Jr., assistant professor of theology and philosophy, with the Outstanding Faculty of Adult Learners Award. Metroversity, a consortium of seven higher education institutions in the Kentucky/Indiana region, annually presents the award to a faculty member nominated by each institution. The award recognizes these teachers for demonstrating receptiveness to non-traditional student issues and concerns; effectiveness in making teaching applicable to life; flexibility in dealing with adult learners; recognition of life experiences in teaching styles appropriate for adult learners; and support of adult students outside the classroom. Dr. Ray earned his PhD from Yale University and joined the Seminary faculty in 1999.

Metroversity also recognized Master of Divinity student Andrew Miller with the Outstanding Adult Learner Award. Students nominated for this award are oriented toward improving their life situation through postsecondary learning experiences; have maintained family, civic or employment responsibilities while pursuing their education; and have overcome difficult or unusual circumstances in order to pursue adult learning among other criteria. Miller, who along with his identical twin brother was diagnosed with a learning disability at age three, learned to overcome his challenges to complete college, earn a Masters of Arts in Christian Education, and become a certified Christian educator in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) before following a call to ministry and enrolling at LPTS. He credits the support of tutors since sixth grade, his parents and friends for helping him and his brother to learn study habits and how to cope while obtaining the best education possible.

Dr. Christopher Elwood, associate professor of historical theology, is one of eight recipients of a Lilly Theological Research Grant for 2002-2003. The grant, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and administered through ATS, will provide salary replacement support for a sabbatical leave and will support a book project entitled Profaning the Body: Community, Sex, and Sin in Reformation Discourse and Contemporary Debate. This publication will attempt to answer the question “What do Reformation sources say about sin and sexuality?” In the book, Elwood, a historian of Christianity with particular expertise in the early modern period, will give an account for the general reader of the broad spectrum of Reformation thought and practice relating to licit and illicit sexuality and offer guidance to those who want to apply historical theological insights to current ecclesiastical and civil debates on sexuality.

“With the Reformation discourse as background, I will turn to an examination of contemporary public discussions on sexual behavior and community and present an argument for moving beyond the present impasse toward more fruitful theological debate by attending critically both to the traditions of thought and practice that shape our present thinking and to our appropriation of them,” Elwood states.

President Emeritus C. Ellis Nelson and his spouse, Nancy Gribble, were honored with an endowed professorship in their names. Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where Dr. Nelson is research professor, announced that complete funding for the C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Chair of Christian Education has been subscribed through a substantial gift from Mr. Edward Vickery of Houston, Texas. Nelson, who went to teach at Austin Seminary following his service as Louisville Seminary’s sixth president (1974-1981), has had a substantial influence in the field of Christian education in the Presbyterian Church and throughout the world.