AU Speeches: The Reverend Jerome King Del Pino 2/8/08

The Reverend Jerome King Del Pino, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, United Methodist Church

February 8, 2008
Bender Arena
American University
As Delivered

Good morning. Good morning? Dr. Kerwin, Bishop Schol, Jacqueline Eldridge, distinguished guests, members of the board of trustees, administration, faculty, students and friends of American University, sisters and brothers all, I am deeply honored to bring a special greeting and a heart-felt congratulation on behalf of Bishop Gregory Palmer, President and the directors of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church on this very special occasion to inaugurate Dr. Neil Kerwin as the 14th president of American University.

We are here to perform a ceremonial act. On one level that is a perfunctory, necessary and even laudable thing to do. But like all rights, its significance transcends the event itself. For in this moment we pause solemnly to remember where we have been, and to come together in the inauguration of Neil Kerwin, where we are going. Excessive attention to the past leads to sentimentalism. Excessive attention to the future leads to utopianism. Faithful attention to the present requires, however, that the past and the future be held together in a kind of trust. So this right is an act of profound trust that the rich and cherished traditions of this great institution of the United Methodist Church will become powerful in new form, in a new form of devotion to the quest for truth… Accountable to the issues of the years to come. American University , it is one of 122 schools, colleges and universities and seminaries related by history and chartered to the United Methodist Church , that charter being granted by an act of the United States Senate and House of Representatives. It is a part of a vastly larger group of schools and colleges that have been founded by the denomination primarily in the 19th century, but subsequently changed their vision of service and some of them suffered closure. To the best of our knowledge, that list is an excess of 12 hundred schools founded from here to California . To the best of my knowledge, most of them are not in existence today in the form in which they were started. In this group are Auburn , Morgan State , and Wilberforce universities, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga . Some merged with other institutions. Some separated from their church relationships and are prominent institutions today. In this group are Northwestern University , the University of Southern California , Vanderbilt University , Lawrence College , and Wesleyan University of Connecticut. I share this as context to say that the United Methodist Church has a mission in higher education and it is endeavoring as faithfully as possible to be serious about it. The mission is critical and worthy of every effort to remain in a relationship with its schools, colleges and universities for at least three reasons:

First, it is of the nature of the church to express itself through learning. Notwithstanding much of the bravado that exists in some sectors of the religious community, the reality is that religion at its best is intended that it would in fact permit learning to occur.

Secondly, it is the purpose of the church to provide access to those who have been locked out, kept down, in order that they might be given learning and to see to it that this would be done for all people, irrespective of their social status and irrespective of their economic means.

And thirdly, it is the goal of the church to point society to a just, humane, and moral existence.

All of the strategies of our denomination in higher education are focused on these imperatives. That attention to relative issues is our mission. In the light of environment in which we find ourselves, this mission is urgent. And so today, it is fitting to reaffirm in this celebration of new beginnings for American University in the inauguration of Dr. Neil Kerwin as president, the United Methodist Church 's ardent desire and unwavering commitment to be in relationship.

The purpose of this relationship is not proprietary. I want to repeat that. It is not proprietary. The United Methodist Church collectively could probably not muster what the budgets of this university would be over a 10 year period. The purpose of this relationship is not proprietary seeking a venue for some latter day effort to engage in some form of indoctrination. Rather, the goal is to be partners with this and other church-related communities of scholars and learners to create an informed, discriminating, morally alert and religiously sensitive nation. Something of which we have experienced some deprivation of late. It is grounded in our theological visions of the way that learning and knowing God, are bound to each other. It is articulated in the church's social policy of providing access and joint choice to young people to find this reality in a church-related setting. In all that I have said here, I do not mean carelessly to imply that secular higher education is to be denigrated. The achievement of our nearly universal higher education system in North America is a remarkable achievement and it is to be admired. However, given the restraints of public policy, the public sector cannot be expected to be as direct and articulate in its mission as can the family of schools that claim relationship with the church. By this we do not turn our backs on the independence of research and the autonomy of institutions of learning. But rather, we suggest that our schools and not least, American University, have as a part of their faithfulness to their own history, a responsibility to articulate with more directness, and to frame with more intentionality, the hard, sharp lines of religious insight and moral decision making that is frequently observed elsewhere in our time.

This is the note of urgency in the United Methodist Church 's mission in higher education. Our times cry out for integrity, do they not? It is therefore heartening that we gather today to inaugurate as president of the university, a human being whose life and work as husband, father, scholar, teacher, administrator, colleague and friend, gives witness to the integrity for which our times pray. In Neil Kerwin, I am strongly persuaded, as I trust you are, that this university and the wider higher education community have been gifted with a leader who is worthy and equipped to assume the awesome challenge of leading this university in achieving in new and even unexpected ways, its founding purpose. It is, to prepare a generation of leaders who are broadly educated, spiritually deep, passionately engaged, and capable of translating in a complex, and dangerous environment, the lasting values of truth, beauty and goodness, which are the hallmarks of a humane and civilized world. In this sacred task, President Kerwin, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church , and the family of church-related schools, colleges and universities, of which you and this university are an integral part, covenant to support you and uphold. American University will advance its mission under your leadership. As a member of the board of trustees and as general secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, I am proud and privileged to be a part of this stellar institution, and look forward to sharing with you in the great work that beckons us into the future that yet belongs to God, but by God's grace, we will claim with confidence and hope.