San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Angelo, Calif., has received a commitment of $2 million to establish the Rice Family Chair of Christian Spirituality at the seminary.
This chair honors four people with very close ties to the seminary: The Rev. Dr. Howard Rice, professor of ministry and chaplain from 1968-1997; Mrs. Howard (Nancy) Rice; the late Rev. Wendy Dreitcer, one of the Rice’s daughters who is an alumna; and Dr. Andrew Dreitcer, founding director of the SFTS Diplomas in Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Formation Studies.
In announcing the gift Oct. 4 to the Board of Trustees, President Phil Butin shared that the anonymous donor deeply appreciates the ministry of each member of the Rice family and was personally blessed by their ministries at different times In our conversations about the appropriate designation of the endowed chair, the donor and I kept coming back to the remarkable contribution of Rev. Howard Rice and his family to the ministry of spiritual formation through San Francisco Theological Seminary and the donor’s longstanding desire to honor that contribution with an exceptional and lasting gift that would guarantee the permanence of a faculty position in Christian Spirituality, Butin said.
The purpose of the Rice Family Chair of Christian Spirituality is to ensure that the study and practice of Christian spirituality remains central to the SFTS Master of Divinity curriculum.
A celebration of the new Rice Family Chair of Christian Spirituality is being planned during the Alumni Reunion Weekend April 19-21, 2007. More details will be posted soon on the seminary’s Web site as the event draws closer: www.sfts.edu .
