Seminary’s offering

No one thought it strange when a regionwide meeting on school violence last year was held, not at one of the local public schools, but at the Bangor Theological Seminary. When pro-life and pro-choice advocates needed a place to discuss the issue of abortion, they met at the seminary. The seminary has also been the meeting place for business people pondering their ethical responsibilities, groups concerned with intolerance, examinations of the media and a dozen other subjects. Gov. Angus King was offered some of his views at the most recent convocation.

Long a landmark in Bangor and respected for academic successes, Bangor Theological Seminary in the past several years has become a center for community dialogue, a place where people of good intention have come together to discuss the issues of the day. A large part of the credit for the seminary’s new role should go to its president, the Rev. Ansley Coe Throckmorton, who last week announced she would retire from her position sometime in the summer of 2001.

When President Throckmorton began her tenure in 1995, she said “I would like to think of us as an important resource in the community, a place where we can exchange ideas, explore our creativity, and have civilized discourse on our common lives, regardless of religion.” As the seminary board begins its search for a new president, it might ask prospective candidates what they think of that comment and for their own view of the proper role of the seminary in the community.

It has often been noted that technology — from radios and televisions to on-line shopping — has tended to diminish the popularity of public spaces as people find more of their entertainment and material desires fulfilled at home. Lost with these spaces is the skill of public discourse. It is an oversimplification to say that people assert ideas these days more often than explain them, but identifying public figures who seem to have lost all ability to listen to any voices but their own is disconcertingly easy.

The public role set forth by President Throckmorton for places like the seminary has never been more important. The public should grateful for her role in bringing it to Bangor and hopeful that it will continue in the future.