13 February 2008

Headlines:

[1] Parrott Chosen To Head NAICU
[2] Two Presbyterian Colleges Rate Well for Safety
[3] Troubled Janitor Killed on Ash Wednesday
[4] Obama's Spiritual Guide Retires
[5] The ARDA Introduces New Look and New Features
[6] Erskine Expands Kenya Connection



[1] Parrott Chosen To Head NAICU

Belhaven College President Roger Parrott has been elected to the board of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). Parrott was installed at the board’s annual meeting on 6 February in Washington, DC. The NAICU is a national association representing private higher education, serving as the unified voice of nearly 1,000 independent college and university presidents and specialized state and regional associate executives. NAICU member institutions enroll nine of every 10 students attending a private college or university in the United States.

+ 1025 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036 (202) 785-8866

[2] Two Presbyterian Colleges Rate Well for Safety

Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania, and Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, have both earned an “A+” rating for the safety and security of their campuses, according to 2008 College Prowler rankings. Only 12 schools across the nation received the highest rating. “A high grade in safety and security means that students generally feel safe, campus police are visible, blue-light phones and escort services are readily available and safety precautions are not overly necessary,” according to the College Prowler guide. The rating is a result of the recommendation of the guide’s student author, direct student feedback and other factors such as the presence and size of a police force and security staff, services provided, the area and campus crime reports, security of dormitories, and the prevalence of campus theft.

College Prowler is the largest publisher of college content in the United States with 250 single-school guidebooks written by students. Each year the organization awards colleges with letter-graded rankings in 20 campus life topics. Davidson College also earned an “A” rating for academics, which generally indicates that professors are knowledgeable, accessible and genuinely interested in their students’ welfare, the College Prowler Web site said. Other determining factors include class size, how well professors communicate and whether or not classes are engaging.

+ Presbyterian Church (USA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202

[3] Troubled Janitor Killed on Ash Wednesday

According to reports published in the Orlando Sentinel, Goeffrey Schaub was a janitor at Oviedo Presbyterian Church and a student enrolled at Reformed Seminary when police shot him to death on 6 February. Deputies conducting an investigation into the molestation of a 7-year-old boy allegedly were defending themselves against a brandished single-shot flare gun wrapped in cloth when the incident occurred.

Local authorities stated that Schaub, 62, had an extensive arrest and conviction record for such offences in both New York and Florida.

+ Oviedo Presbyterian Church, 2405 Lockwood Blvd., Oviedo, FL 32765 (407) 366-2544

[4] Obama's Spiritual Guide Retires

Controversial Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright, Jr., has announced his retirement at age 66 from Trinity United Church of Christ. The dynamic Afro-centric figure often left denominational officials scrambling to explain his support for non-Christian public figures. Barack Obama joined Trinity in the late 1980s and says he based his historic keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention on one of Wright's sermons.

+ Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 West 95th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60628
(773) 962-5650

[5] The ARDA Introduces New Look and New Features

The Association of Religion Data Archives has a new look and new features. Two of the most significant new features are GIS US Maps and the Learning Center.

Partnering with Social Explorer (www.socialexplorer.com), the ARDA now provides a U.S. Maps tool that allows for interactive mapping of demographic data by census tracts and religious adherence data by counties. All of the GIS maps allow for zooming, moving, and searching across locations and let you create customized demographic and religious reports.

The Learning Center contains many new Learning Modules for classroom use and now includes a Dictionary of Religious and Statistical Terms. The new Center also offers multiple interactive tools, including the Compare Yourself Survey that allows students and others to compare themselves to the US population on a variety of religious indicators.

+Association of Religion Data Archives, 211 Oswald Tower, University Park, llinois 16802

[6] Erskine Expands Kenya Connection

David Githii, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, has been visiting the Erskine Seminary of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The 4.3 million member African denomination recently took an interest in the small American denomination when it discovered the ministerial development program maintained by the traditionalist Presbyterians.

The Due West, South Carolina, seminary has five students enrolled from Kenya. Moderator Githii has been negotiating a program under which East Africans could begin their studies in South Carolina and finish them back in Africa. Once a quiet refuge for psalm-singing traditional Presbyterians on the edge of what Carolinians called the Old English section, the school now has major programs in Columbia, Augusta, Charleston, and Greenville as well.

Githii’s denomination is one of the fastest growing denominations in the world. A second body, The Reformed Church of East Africa, has also shown massive growth in the face of Islamic assaults in the same region.

+ Erskine Theological Seminary PO Box 668 Due West, South Carolina 29639

+ Presbyterian Church of East Africa, PO Box 27573-00506 Myayo Stadium, Nairobi GPO, Kenya

+ Reformed Church of East Africa, Kisumu Road, PO Box 99, Eldoret, Kenya

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