This week, members of the administration, faculty, and staff of UTS, Barrytown gathered in the Founders’ dining room for a holiday meal together. However, it was not a meal, it was a banquet!! UTS Hospitality (Kate Korda, UTS’10) simply surprised everyone with a delightfully prepared table: the table settings, the silverware (+ chopsticks), and stemware. The meal: soup, bulgogi, kimchee, rice, chap chae, desserts. All lovingly prepared by Reiko Mickler. [She and I are already discussing making this the menu for next year’s UTS Golf Tournament!] The conversations were varied and...

Carol Pobanz (UTS’80) is on a life path where she fuses art and religion. She says, “Having degrees in both art and religious education it has always been my desire to develop activities combining the two fields of interest.” Carol Pobanz (UTS’80) earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently the University of the Arts) and her Master of Religious Education (MRE) at Unification Theological Seminary (UTS). Carol concurs with Rev. Moon’s words: “People often think that politics moves the world, but that is not the case. It is culture and the arts...

Martin Meijer Ph.D. (UTS’91): Dear Friend, I am very proud and happy to let you know that, after more than four years of work, “People Who Choose the Unification Church” was published, in Korean, “통일교를선택한 사람들.” All the essential Unification ideas are creatively explained so that they are comprehensible for people who are not church members. The book’s twelve chapters cover: “The masterpiece of love”; “Eve’s apple and Natasha’s snake”; “The suffering of God”; “Jesus’ marriage”; “True Parents for humanity”; “The power of woman”; “Breaking love’s glass ceiling”;...

Misconceptions help to explain why current strategies aren’t working. By Jo Ann Deasy and Chris Meinzer Myth #1—Students feel high debt loads are unmanageable. Myth #2—Higher tuition discounting through scholarship aid has the greatest impact on reducing educational debt. For the last several decades, theological schools, denominations, and congregations have become increasingly concerned about educational debt among seminary graduates and its potential negative impact on their abilities to serve in ministry. Some theological schools have sought to rectify the situation...

UTS president Dr. Hugh Spurgin, the administration, the faculty, and the staff, all wish you Joy and Happiness in this Holiday Season and hope that you receive God’s abundant blessings throughout all of 2016. UTS is Celebrating its 40th Year of Theological Education 1975-2015 The Unification Theological Seminary offers educational programs in an interfaith context, which cultivate the heart, mind and spirit; bridge religious and cultural divides; promote leadership, service and engagement with the world; and provide tools for success in ministry and professional life. UTS...

The Journal of Unification Studies, a journal of the Unification Theological Seminary, is a forum for committed engagement with Unification theology and practice, addressing concerns of the theological community and the professional ministry. To clarify foundational issues in Unification theology, Journal of Unification Studies welcomes commentary and critical studies of texts and doctrines, as well as historical studies of the Unification Church and the life of its founder. To promote dialogue and understanding, it invites papers from diverse viewpoints which engage Unificationist...

In the beginning years of the 21st Century we still find a world desperately in need of truth. Each and every day, people conduct their lives based on cultural pressures and on popular opinion, rather than the abiding truth found by studying the history of God’s providence and the life-giving guidance He has given through His prophets and through a personal relationship with us. For more than 40 years Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) has been preparing servant-leaders who through their word and deed give testimony to God’s continuous investment to build the Kingdom of Heaven on...

Prayer is sacred intimacy. Spending hours and days with God while making decisions in marriage and building familial relations is blessed and admirable. A practice of praying has been meaningful to people throughout human history. In the Biblical book of Genesis, the fourth chapter and verse 26, the words according to the King James Version reads: And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Prayer is intimacy with the Greatest Transformer that is possible throughout all of existence. Wisdom, discipline...

This December, UTS president, Dr. Hugh Spurgin is attending two important higher education conferences. Staying current with changing expectations, mandates, and requirements for institutions of higher education is vital in order to maintain good standing, but it is also key to showing competency, reliability, and progress in an increasingly complex and diverse education environment. UTS is firmly committed to maintaining the standards required, and seeks to learn from- and adopt the best-practices of other leading institutions. Dr. Spurgin’s attendance at these two proceedings is an...