Announcement of the gifts was made jointly Oct. 15 by Bishop Kenneth L. Carder, Nashville Area, and Joseph C. Hough Jr., dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School. The Turner gift will enable the United Methodist Church and the Vanderbilt Divinity School to enter their first formal partnership since the university's affiliation with the church officially ended in 1914. Future conflict will be cultural, he said, noting the rising tensions between western and eastern Christianity. To help build a community of leadership, the board approved a campaign to encourage more churches to pay their Ministerial Education Fund apportionments.
Apportioned funds support a number of churchwide ministries and administrative needs.
According to the research, lack of support and inability to maintain their integrity in the system, rejection from congregations, and conflict of family and pastoral responsibilities are some of the reasons women gave for leaving local ministry. The study was prompted by clergywomen of the Southern New England Conference, who in 1991 wanted to know why so many of their colleagues were disappearing from local church ministry. Bishop Ruediger Minor, based in Moscow, told the group the issue of religious freedom in Russia must continue to be raised while the church waits to see how a restrictive new law might be enforced. Wilborn met Nielsen, a centenarian, at a luncheon in south Chicago that paired inner-city youth with potential mentors. Nielsen told Wilborn if he stayed out of trouble and finished high school she would pay for his college.