Description

Currently based in the Interchurch Center in New York City’s Morningside Heights, New York Theological Seminary has had a long and relatively well-developed relationship with the Luce Foundation, with grants dating back to the early 1970s. Luce provided support for the Seminary’s prison education programs at Sing Sing, and later funded a series of programs for Korean clergy. Most recently, the Foundation provided substantial support for the launch and development of the NYTS Center for World Christianity, established in 2004. The last Luce Foundation grant to NYTS was approved in 2011, and a small number of recent inquiries to the Foundation – both formal and informal – have thus far not been successful.
NYTS occupies a unique place in New York City’s theological education landscape. It was founded in 1900 to train urban religious leaders, and was initially known as The Bible Teachers Training Institute. The Seminary’s shift in attention to increased training for leaders representing historically marginalized communities of faith coincided with its growing relationship with the Luce Foundation, and with wider social and cultural changes in both NYC and the country. Today, the Seminary’s students represent dozens of Christian denominations, as well as non-Christian religious traditions, and the Association of Theological Schools classifies New York Theological Seminary as a historically Black theological institution. Given its earlier establishment of degree programs in Spanish, NYTS also continues to have strong ties in the Latinx community, and the majority of its students now are African American or Hispanic.
 
Working with a research professor who is also a surgeon, the Seminary has developed plans to start a center on health and equity. The center will offer classes and training for seminarians and community leaders, with the aim of increasing their understanding of the theological implications of health care policies and needs. More broadly, it will seek to clarify the interconnectedness of physical, mental, and spiritual health. While the long-term goal of the center is to provide services in person through workshops, classes, and conferences, the Seminary is seeking seed money to create virtual platforms to deliver webinars, podcasts and reports directly to African American and Latinx leaders. Specific plans for the Center and its work are outlined in the detailed project description. Luce Foundation funds would be used for web development and design, video production, and webcasting materials.
The proposed work aligns with the Theology Program’s continuing emphasis on public engagement on the part of theological education institutions, as well its support for creative uses of digital technologies and new online platforms. While not specifically conceived as an emergency grant, the work to be supported would respond directly to challenges and constraints introduced and amplified by COVID-19, with particular attention to the needs of communities especially hard hit by the pandemic.