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New York Theological Seminary Announces Vision for the Eddy Program for Spiritual Coordination and Community Well-Being at the Seminary

For Immediate Release:

New York Theological Seminary Celebrates the Life and Work of the Revs. Norman and Margaret Eddy and Announces Vision for the Eddy Program for Spiritual Coordination and Community Well-Being at the Seminary

The family of Margaret and Norman Eddy and the leadership of New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) are working together to establish The Margaret and Norman Eddy Program Center for Spiritual Coordination and Community-Well Being. The goal is the creation of a Program Center – an endowed fund - that will continue the life work of Margaret and Norman Eddy.

Two events are planned connected with this exciting initiative, which will also serve to honor the life and work of the late Margaret Eddy and celebrate the birthday of Norm Eddy. The first is a reception and briefing on The Margaret and Norman Eddy Program Center, followed by the premiere of a film about the Eddys. This event will take place on Friday, February 26, 5:00-7:30 p.m. at The Interchurch Center (475 Riverside Drive, 120th Street), New York City.

The second event is a birthday celebration for Norm, reflections on Spiritual Coordination, and the sharing of appreciations about the birthday honoree. This event will take place on Saturday, February 27, 2:00-5:30 p.m. at the Church of the Resurrection (325 East 101st Street, between First and Second Avenues), New York City.

The Living Legacy of Norman and Margaret Eddy

Norman Eddy was born and brought up in New Britain, CT. He graduated from Yale University and served in World War II in a volunteer ambulance corps, the American Field Service in Egypt, Libya and Italy. In the summer of 1943 as the AFS ambulances returned from Palmyra (Syrian Desert), Norm had a spiritual experience on the road to Damascus. He was engulfed by the love, truth, and beauty of the divine and he experienced the unity of all creation even in the midst of the horrible war. From that experience, Norm’s purpose in life became clear -- to live by the Holy Spirit and to uncover the light of God within himself and all others.

Norm Eddy’s experience began a life journey which included attending Union Theological Seminary, being ordained in 1951, a life-changing ministry in East Harlem and a remarkable woman named Margaret (Peg) Lindsay Ruth. The ministry was the East Harlem Protestant Parish and “Peggy” was a fellow seminary student. She was equally committed to issues of social justice and activating well-being in the community through education, peer counseling, and biblical storytelling. Peg Eddy’s biblical storytelling aligned the stories of the Bible with the lives of people around her (in East Harlem, the USA and the Soviet Union) addressing illness, work, and family life.

Peg and Norm married in 1950, became co-pastors of a little storefront church in East Harlem, lived in tenements on 100th Street and raised their three children there. They devoted their lives together to spiritual coordination, prayer networks and Biblical storytelling. They are known for their compassionate action groups leading to life-changing community committees on narcotics, economics, and education.

Peg, a Smith College graduate, studied at Union Theological Seminary. She was ordained in 1951 and went on to gain a Master’s degree in Sacred Theological and a Doctor of Ministry degree from New York Theological Seminary. She was on the faculty at NYTS and Princeton University. She was active with NYTS until her death in 1990, at which time a scholarship was established in her name. Former East Harlem Protestant Parish member, Jose Vadi, remembers that Peg Eddy was a “strong woman of strong convictions. She was not given to grandstanding or showboating so I think that Norman got most of the play or whatever attention there was to what they were doing. Anyone that knew them knew they worked as a team but in the patriarchical and sexist culture of that era (the 1950s through 1980s), women were relegated to the background even by so-called ‘progressives.’ So I don't think [Peg] got the credit that she deserved in that ‘man's world.’ [This event] is an opportunity for Norman to clarify this whole matter because he knows how much she meant to what he was doing. They were definitely a team. They prayed together, strategized together, and worked together for the greater good of East Harlem.”

Envisioning The Margaret and Norman Eddy Program Center for Spiritual Coordination and Community Well-Being

The Vision for the Program Center includes the following:

To make a home in the Seminary for the training of pastors and other urban faith leaders in skills of spiritual coordination (the spirituality of community organizing, compassionate action) and biblical storytelling.
To endow a faculty position that will guide, maintain, and continue to make relevant the life work of Margaret and Norman Eddy through ongoing urban ministry, teaching and research. The faculty member will be committed to spiritual coordination.
To include in the Program Center other Seminary programs, that fit under the umbrella of Spiritual Coordination and Community Well-Being such as special retreats, a retired minister’s network, and other relevant programs and/or events.
To fund The Program Center with an endowment of $500 thousand and the professorship with an endowment of $2 million.

About New York Theological Seminary

New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) was founded in 1900 by Dr. Wilbert Webster White, and formerly known as the Biblical Seminary in New York. NYTS is a non-denominational urban center for theological education with more than 700 students working in partnership with churches throughout the metropolitan area and around the world. Its student body is one of the most diverse in the nation today, and its programs are offered at a variety of academic levels in order to provide resources for ministry. NYTS prepares men and women for effective service in church and society, in parish ministry, and other vital ministries outside the church. NYTS shares with its constituencies a fundamental commitment to the transformative power of the Word of God. NYTS is the only seminary in the nation primarily dedicated to preparing and supporting clergy and laity for ministry in the complex urban context of today.

The Seminary extends an invitation to all to join this call for action to make Peg and Norm’s urban and healing ministries a reality at New York Theological Seminary. Funding of The Margaret and Norman Eddy Program Center for Spiritual Coordination and Community Well-Being is part of The Campaign for New York Theological Seminary. For more information about The Margaret and Norman Eddy Program Center or to make a contribution, please contact:

The Rev. Susan Switzer
Director of Major Gifts & Planned Giving
Office of Development and Institutional Advancement
New York Theological Seminary
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 500
New York, NY 10115
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
212-870-1264

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Micah Institute Launched at New York Theological Seminary

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(NEW YORK, February 24, 2010) New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) announces the launch of the Micah Institute, an initiative to educate churches and religious leaders throughout the New York metropolitan region regarding global poverty and injustice. The Micah Institute at NYTS will partner with the Micah Challenge USA Campaign which, as of January 1, 2010, is also housed within NYTS. Both endeavors are part of the larger global Micah Challenge, a movement of churches, universities, organizations and individuals in forty countries, committed to empowering churches to do their part in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme global poverty in half by the year 2015.

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President's Statement in Response to the Crisis in Haiti

dirvin_small The recent earthquake in Haiti calls upon all of us who are people of faith to respond. The initial question many often ask when confronted with disasters of such extraordinary magnitude is "why?" This is the question that Jesus' disciples raised in John 9:2 when seeing a man blind from birth they asked who sinned, this man or his parents? Jesus responded by saying neither, but that his condition was an occasion for the work of God to be made manifest. So it is with the recent earthquake in Haiti. This is an occasion for the healing and redeeming work of God to be revealed. New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) as a community of faith is being called to join with others in manifesting that work in the world once again in our day.

The entire NYTS community joins me I am sure in first and foremost expressing our profound condolences to the people of Haiti both in homeland and throughout the world for the tragic suffering and loss of life that they have experienced. We especially wish to express our sympathies to our students, graduates, staff, faculty members and friends who are from Haiti, who have relatives in Haiti, or who have ministries in Haiti. We have watched the images on our television and computer screens, have listened to reports from families and friends, and wish to convey that we are determined to stand with our brothers and sisters in Haiti, in the New York metropolitan region, and around the world in their suffering and grief.

In the same breath we commend the President of the United States and the numerous international relief organizations, both religious and secular, for responding so quickly to the situation by sending resources and personnel to help alleviate the immediate crisis. We recognize the enormity of the challenge that remains before the world in reaching those who are still trapped, in need of medical attention, or without the basic resources of food and water, to say nothing of the need to grieve, to attend to the dead, and to begin to rebuild both city and nation. We call upon all who are in positions of authority and are capable of responding to continue to do so with resolve so that the work of God may continue to be manifest beyond the immediate surge of relief.

We also call upon the churches and other religious communities in our city, throughout our nation, and around the world not only to hold the people of Haiti in prayer, but to make every effort to support the recovery effort through financial gifts and other means at their disposal. Such an outpouring of gifts and personnel help increase the work of God that we see taking place.

Finally, we recognize in this crisis an opportunity to address the profound historical conditions that have given rise to poverty and oppression in Haiti. The attention of the world is focused upon this small nation in the Caribbean in a new way today. May we not lose this opportunity to address the fundamental issues of international economic disparity, racism, and oppression that have colluded to deny the people of Haiti the opportunity to enjoy all that God would have for them as a nation.

There are several action steps that we can and will be taking.

The most important means of showing concrete support right now is to make a financial contribution. Members of the NYTS community are urged to make a donation to one or more of the various organizations involved in relief, such as Church World Service or World Vision. In addition to this, during the week of January 18 through 25 the Seminary will be taking up a special collection to be given to one or more relief organizations that are now on the ground in Haiti involved in relief. Mr. Daryl Bloodsaw, President of the NYTS Student Association, and Mr. Jerry Reisig, Chair of the NYTS faculty Community Life Committee, will coordinate this effort.
During the days and weeks ahead we will be asking members of our NYTS community who are from Haiti or have active ministries in Haiti to let us know how we can increase our support for their work.
Mr. Daryl Bloodsaw has informed me that as President of the NYTS Student Association he is reaching out to his counterpart in other theological schools to explore an inter-seminarian relief project.
NYTS will devote time in the coming semester in both its curricular and its extra-curricular activities to study the situation of Haiti, to be in fuller dialogue with members of the NYTS community who identify themselves as Haitian in origin, and to look at ways to address some of the more underlying historical conditions that have given rise to Haiti's difficulties as a nation.
We will continue to lift up the needs of Haiti and all Haitians in prayer.

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Current Master of Divinity Student Receives Top Honor

Congratulations to our friend and classmate

Stacie Pinderhughes!!!

Dr. Pinderhughes has been selected as one of the Best Doctors in America for 2009 – 2010!!!

She is the Associate Medical Director and Chairperson of the Department of Medicine at North General Hospital. She was chosen by a consensus of her peers and will be included in the Best Doctors in America database.

Please keep her in your prayers as she seeks to make the world a better place through God and through medicine.

Congratulations Stacie!!!

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