McCormick Theological Seminary

McCormick Theological Seminary is one of eleven schools of theology of the Presbyterian Church (USA). It shares a campus with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, bordering the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Primarily a seminary serving the Presbytery of Chicago and the Synod of Lincoln Trails, McCormick Theological Seminary also educates members of other Christian denominations. It was named after American industrialist Cyrus McCormick.

McCormick Theological Seminary was established in 1829 as a preparatory school in Hanover, Indiana for prospective Presbyterian ministers hoping to serve on the western frontier of the expanding United States. When the western frontier boundary moved, the school also moved and opened in Chicago's present-day Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1859. Their old campus now forms a part of the DePaul University campus on Fullerton Parkway between Halsted and Racine Streets. In 1969, the Young Lords and 350 local community residents aided by seminary students, sat in at the seminary's administration building and held it for a week, demanding $650,000 to be invested in low income housing.The seminary had a fence surrounding it and the community would have to walk several blocks around it to get to a shopping strip on Lincoln Ave.McCormick Theological Seminary was planning an expansion as well as several other institutions in Lincoln Park.A Lincoln Park Poor People's Coalition was meeting with them to get McCormick to invest in affordable housing.The seminary refused and talks broke down.The Young Lords were the center of the coalition and they chained the doors and took administration offices over and held them for a full week.During the take-over,the seminary students volunteered to be human shields to prevent the police from entering the building.By the next morning Latino community residents brought food and supplies and many of these families with their children joined the Young Lords inside.At one point President McKay of McCormick Theological Seminary threatened to bring in the police.The Young Lords responded by threatening to burn down the library.A negotiating committee met with President McKay and he agreed to all of the Young Lords demands.

After the Young Lords take-over and facing a dire financial situation and declining enrollment, McCormick sold the Lincoln Park campus to DePaul University and moved to the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago,in 1975. This move divested the institution of infrastructure while reinforcing its commitment to urban ministry. Sharing facilities with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), McCormick began to help foster important ecumenical cooperation between the Presbyterian and Lutheran churches. In 2003 McCormick reinforced and recommitted itself to its ecumenical partnership with LSTC by building a new building situated on the LSTC campus.

References

The Fifth Quarter Century at McCormick, 1929-1954. by Dr. Ovid R. Sellers. McCormick Theological Seminary, 1955.

External links

• McCormick Theological Seminary