The Center for Lifelong Learning announces the second Rural Ministry Fellowship, a year-long fellowship to a pastor or commissioned lay pastor serving a congregation in a rural setting. The Rural Ministry Fellowship begins in January 2009 and will provide the Rural Ministry Fellowship recipient with financial support to attend several Lifelong Learning events at Columbia, including a Strengthening Rural Ministry conference to be held at the seminary in September 2009. Completed applications for the fellowship are due Nov. 10, 2008.
Developed by the seminary's Center for Lifelong Learning, the fellowship and the conference are funded by generous gifts from individuals and congregations. These gifts will also provide scholarships for the conference. These will be awarded to 12 individuals selected as Rural Ministry Scholars from among the fellowship applicants.
More information and the Rural Ministry Fellowship application are available at here. Or you may contact Sarah Erickson, ericksons@ctsnet.edu or 404.687.4526
Strengthening Rural Ministry Conference
To be held September 22-24, 2009, on the seminary campus, the conference is open to any participant interested in rural ministry. Conference particulars will be announced in late winter, 2009.
2008 Rural Ministry Fellowship Recipient
Marilyn Wullschleger
Marilyn Wullschleger, recipient of the inaugural Rural Ministry Fellowship and the pastor of three small Presbyterian congregations near Marysville, KS, will serve as conference consultant prior to the selection of the 2009 Fellowship recipient and will attend the 2009 conference.
Born in Kansas, Wullschleger grew up as the child of "home missionaries" in Appalachia. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kentucky and established herself as a clinical researcher and medical editor at both her alma mater and with the Humana Heart Institute in Louisville, KY. Called to ministry, she completed her M.Div. degree in 1996 at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA, then received a call to be a pastor in her home state.