San Francisco Theological Seminary
2007 Seminary Report
105 Seminary Road
San Anselmo CA 94960
Contact: Carol Robb (crobb@sfts.edu)

Worship:  San Francisco Theological Seminary has 5 worship services per week.  Students who are Chaplains’ Assistants plan the services, under the supervision of the Chaplain, Rev. Dr. Charles Marks and the Professor of Church Music, Dr. Dan Hoggatt.  Respect for Nature is the worship theme at least once per semester, but sometimes more often.

Education:    Carol Robb teaches the course in Environmental Ethics every spring, and it fulfills the requirement for an Introduction to Christian Ethics course.  Students at SFTS take the course usually in their senior year, and students from the Graduate Theological Union’s other consortial seminaries also take the course.  It fulfills the ethics requirement for PSR also.  The focus topic changes from year to year.  The 2005 course focused on food.  The 2006 course focused on climate change.  The 2007 spring Dr. Robb was on sabbatical.  This coming spring, 2008, the focus is biodiversity and the moral status of animals.

A class project is required and we try and sometimes succeed in doing one  project that involves all the students.  Because students may come from the East Bay (Berkeley),  it may make more sense to have a separate project for East Bay students.  Each class chooses it’s own project, as the assignment is to teach ourselves something about living more lightly on the earth that we do not already know.  Class projects have included cooking a meal for ourselves using food from “low on the food chain;”  cook ourselves a meal and trace the origin of every single ingredient, including salt and spices; develop a community garden; monitor our trash and whether we are able to decrease the amount we send to the landfill; make a proposal for and oversee the installation of solar panels on a student group house; make a proposal for and oversee the installation of solar panels on a student dormitory, Oxtoby Hall; learn to construct solar ovens.  On Dr. Robb's webpage can be found pictoral reports of some of these projects.  http://web.sfts.edu/  go to Sfts Faculty, Carol Robb faculty profile, visit website (for her particular website) and see a connection for Campus Eco-Projects.  Another connection is for Climate Change Resources.

The course, Biblical Agriculture, is a charmer.  It was designed to accompany the Introduction to Old Testament class the entering class takes.

In addition, the Program in Christian Spirituality offers 3 foundational courses in Spirituality, and in all of them “Meeting God in Nature” figures prominently.  During retreats the retreatants are encouraged to find a place of quiet, and on our campus can be found “corners” outside for focus.

Buildings and Grounds:  The seminary has an active recycling program for the faculty and administrative offices and for the dormitories.  The Food Service highlights organic food, particularly with regard to fruits and vegetables.  The renovation of a faculty home in a recent instance featured green construction products.  The Board of Trustees Facilities Committee gave encouragement for the installation of Solar Panels on top of Octoby Hall, a dormitory.  More such installations are desired.  We just need to raise the money.

Because SFTS belongs to the consortium, The Graduate Theological Union, yet our campus is about 45 minutes away from where the other consortial seminaries are, in Berkeley, we who teach at the GTU need to drive over for classes and to participate in the administration of the Doctoral Program.  So we own faculty cars to check out to drive for these occasions.  We purchased 2 Toyota Priuses that function as the most often driven cars to take to Berkeley.

Personal discipleship:  Though the Community Garden has its origins as a class project, it lives on and is supported by the Seminary in that automatic irrigation is incorporated in the budget, and a deer fence was constructed at the beginning to surround it.  It is for students, faculty, and staff, and we require organic gardening methods.  The garden is a place for retreat, but the food produced there is only for the gardeners who plant the food.  We have 3 compost bins, and students and others contribute food scraps to the compost bins.  We describe the making of compost as the opportunity to feed the earth after it has fed us.

Public Ministry/political advocacy:  The Seminary hosts the Presbytery’s Hunger Action Enabler and the Restoring Creation Enabler.  These positions are part-time, but steady presences in the Presbyterian churches in this region.  Education on campus and off is the portfolio of these enablers. 

Other:  With regard to publications, Carol Robb has edited with Carl Casebolt Covenant for a New Creation; she is also in the midst of writing about Biblical Resources for reflecting on the ethics of Climate Change Policies.