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Kelsey to Direct Theological Education Unit

Episcopal News Service. [84002]

NEW YORK, (DPS, Jan. 10) -- The Rev. Preston T. Kelsey, II of San Mateo, Calif., has been named executive director of the Board for Theological Education succeeding Dr. Fredrica H. Thompsett.

The appointment was announced by the Rev. Wallace A. Frey, chairman of the Board, who said that Kelsey would take up his duties Feb. 1. Thompsett, who has directed the office since 1977, resigned to join the faculty of the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. as a professor of Church history.

The Board is one of the interim bodies of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church and is charged with strengthening the quality of theological education and coordinating the various institutions and structures working in that field including seminaries, diocesan study programs and continuing education centers. Once operated out of Rochester, N.Y., it has been housed in the Episcopal Church Center since 1977 and is a part of the Education for Mission and Ministry section of the Church Center staff.

As executive director, Kelsey will also work closely with the Council of Seminary Deans, the General Board of Examining Chaplains, Educators and Trainers for Ministry, the Association of Theological Schools and the Council for the Development of Ministry. In recent years, much of the Board's energy has been directed toward placing seminary funding on a regular footing and the 1982 meeting of the General Convention set up a structure for this that is winning enthusiastic support from the dioceses. Many have followed the Convention's guide and created legislation that will direct one percent of a parishes disposable income toward the seminaries.

Kelsey is a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and a a trustee of that seminary. He has served parishes in California, New Hampshire and Albany and the Province of York in the Church of England. He had been rector of Church of the Transfiguration, San Mateo, for 10 years at the time he was named to the education post.

Commenting on the appointment, Frey pointed to Kelsey's involvement with the seminary board and the board of the Lay Academy of the Diocese of California: "Mr. Kelsey brings to his new position a deep concern for theological education, long experience as a trustee and a perspective from the point of view of a parish priest"

Thompsett came to the office from an associate professorship at Seabury-Western Seminary which she had held for five years. She is a native of Detroit and a graduate of Denison College. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago and served on the editorial board for the Church's New Teaching Series. While in New York, she held an adjunct professorship in Church history at General Seminary.