Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary will hold its 153rd commencement exercises on Sunday, May 21, 2006, 3:30 p.m., at Harvey Browne Memorial Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Ky.

The Seminary will confer the following degrees: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, Master of Arts in Religion, Master of Theology, and Doctor of Ministry. Of the 44 potential graduates, 25 are women and 19 are men.

From the Seminary’s Dual Degree Program, seven will receive degrees in two disciplines. Carrie K. Fraser, Emily Accord Haddox, Brenda Lovick, and Evan Rowe will graduate with the Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy (MAMFT) and the Master of Divinity degrees, and Jennifer Wells will receive the joint MAMFT with the Master of Arts in Religion. Through partnerships with two local universities, Scott Hauser will graduate with the dual degree in Master of Divinity and the Masters in Business Administration (University of Louisville), which he received in December 2005, and Beverly Maguffee will receive the dual Master of Arts in Religion and the Master of Arts in Spirituality (Bellarmine).

Several of 13 December 2005 graduates will join their class to receive diplomas at the May exercises.

In the Seminary’s non-degree programs, diplomas in pastoral studies will be granted to seven individuals.

The Commencement speaker will be The Rev. Dr. Marian McClure, Director of the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly Council. Since 1997 she has been responsible for mission cooperation partnerships with 165 denominations around the world and for the denomination’s international mission personnel. She also oversees the denomination’s programs of international evangelism, education and health, disaster assistance, self-development, and work against hunger. The staff and mission personnel for whom she is responsible are committed not only to doing mission but also to assisting Presbyterians throughout the denomination in their direct mission involvements.

In addition to helping the Presbyterian church focus and flourish as a large mission society, McClure has represented the denomination as a member of a delegation to the Vatican and at worldwide meetings such as the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches

McClure earned her doctorate in political science at Harvard University and served five years as a program officer for the Ford Foundation in its Mexico City office. She graduated from Louisville Seminary in 1995, after winning the David H.C. Read Preacher-Scholar award and the Seminary’s award for academic excellence. A member of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, she was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1996. In great demand throughout the church as a speaker and preacher on mission, she is also the author of numerous articles as well as a number of denominational policy statements.

During commencement exercises, the Devoted Service Award will be presented to McClure and to two synod moderators: Rev. Richard (Dick) Menzel, a retired pastor who served congregations in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri, and who serves the Synod of Mid-America; and Rev. Dr. Thomas F. Pickering, pastor of Cordova Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tenn., and Louisville Seminary alum (MDiv ‘83), serving the Synod of Living Waters. These awards recognize individuals for their dedicated service in the life of the Church.

Baccalaureate Service —Prior to Commencement, Dr. Dianne Reistroffer, professor of ministry and director of Methodist studies, will deliver the Baccalaureate sermon, “No Dearer Treasure,” that morning at a 10:30 a.m. worship service in the Seminary’s Frank H. and Fannie W. Caldwell Chapel. The Baccalaureate preacher is selected each year by the graduating class.

Reistroffer joined the Louisville Seminary faculty in 1998, where she has considered it a gift and privilege to teach about matters of ultimate concern and consequence: God, humanity, creation, faith, hope, love, salvation, grace, sin, reconciliation, redemption, and God’s rule of love and justice. For two years she served as the director of continuing and lay education, until 2000, when she was appointed Dean of the Seminary and Vice President for Academic Affairs for a five-year term.

An experienced pastor and educator, with dual standing as a clergy member in the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Presbytery of Western Kentucky of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reistroffer preaches and teaches in both Methodist and Presbyterian congregations.

She has received numerous awards in her career, including the Grawemeyer Special Merit Award for Instructional Development for the course, “Faith and Money,” and a $300,000 grant from the Luce Foundation to establish a comprehensive academic support services program for seminary students.

Reistroffer is a graduate of the College of St. Teresa, Winona, Minn.; Villanova University in Pennsylvania; Boston University School of Theology; and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has also completed further study at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her publications include contributed chapters in The Social Gospel Today (2001) and Foundation Center’s Guide to Proposal Writing, Third Edition (Jane Geever, editor) and published articles and reviews in the fields of women and Methodist church history, women in parish ministry, stewardship in the Reformed tradition, ethical investing, child advocacy, and women’s role in the financing of American religion.

Founded in 1853, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is one of ten Presbyterian Church (USA) seminaries. It is also approved by the United Methodist, the African Methodist Episcopal, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and the Christian Methodist Episcopal denominations to educate their pastors and professionals, making Louisville Seminary the only non-Wesleyan theological institution approved by all four churches. The Seminary is committed to nurturing inclusive study, experience, and exploration that seek to learn from the wisdom of minority voices. As a community with a multicultural vision, Louisville Seminary is a center of theological education that values and embraces the diversity of perspectives.

Correction Made: The non-degree students are receiving the diploma in pastoral studies and not the certificate in pastoral care supervision as originally stated.