Trustees OK strategic plan for seminary

BANGOR – Now that Bangor Theological Seminary has determined where it will be for the next five years, trustees will spend the same period figuring out who it will be.

As the seminary enters its third century of training Protestant ministers and laypeople to serve northern New England, its trustees last week approved a strategic plan to guide them through the next five years.

The plan is designed to create a more stable future for the seminary, which has struggled to survive financially since its founding.

Trustees also accepted the resignation of President William C. Imes, 65, who is scheduled to retire on July 1, 2008. Imes was named president in 2001 to succeed the Rev. Ansley Coe Throckmorton, who also retired.

The new plan includes a commitment to remain at Husson College in Bangor and State Street Church in Portland for the next five years. A related goal is to determine whether “one campus, two campuses, or multiple locations best serve the mission of this school in its future beyond these five years.”

Improving technology to allow more long-distance learning opportunities and strengthening enrollment at the Portland campus are included in the plan. Reaching out to the ethnically diverse religious communities in southern Maine as well as increasing the diversity of faculty and board members also are goals outlined in the 25-page document.

“The strategic plan provides a blueprint of how we get from A to B for the next five years,” trustee Jane Bragg of Bangor said Monday. “The plan we have now is a very strong, clearly delineated plan that will allow us to assess the progress we’re making toward the goals and verify results.”

Imes said that the most apt description of the plan came from a second-generation alumnus: “She said that as long as she’d been alive her family had worried about whether the school would survive,” he said. “She said that the plan was realistic, hopeful and helpful. I tend to agree with that.”

The objective of the plan is to strengthen the seminary in “just and sustainable ways to enable to the school to fulfill its mission.”

The four major elements of the plan are to:

. Program for its mission.

. Be the right size for its mission.

. Fund its mission.

. Provide leadership for its mission.

“I don’t think that what we’ve done in the strategic plan sets a particular course,” Imes said. “I think a new person can really come in with ideas and new people, hire new faculty and create a new school with the same mission the seminary has always had.”

The next president and new faculty will be key in determining what path the seminary will follow over the next 20 years, Imes said. In addition to his retirement, three longtime faculty members – the Rev. Glenn T. Miller , the Rev. Susan E. Davies and Sue Johnson – will retire between 2009 and 2011.

In a new collaboration with Husson, Clifton F. Guthrie will leave the seminary faculty this fall to join the faculty at Husson in the School of Science and the Humanities. He will teach one class on preaching techniques at BTS while teaching classes in ethics, philosophy and world religion to Husson students.

Guthrie will be named the first College Circle Professor, said Julie Green, spokeswoman for Husson. One other professor from the seminary also will teach a class at Husson each semester. Husson hopes to expand the exchange to the New England School of Communications, also based on the Husson campus, Green said.

Seminary trustees last week formed a search committee to begin looking for Imes’ replacement, Bragg said.

Imes most likely will be remembered for shepherding the seminary through one of its most difficult periods. That included the move from its historic campus on Union Street to the modern Husson campus off outer Broadway. He knew when he took the job that the seminary would have to make major changes if it was to survive in the 21st century.

At his inaugural address in November 2001, Imes said he did not plan to stray from the seminary’s original mission to train ministers to lead churches in northern New England. Instead, he set as an overarching goal expanding that mission.

As his tenure began, Imes suggested during an interview with the Bangor Daily News that the seminary seriously explore entering into mutual agreements with other colleges and universities, including Husson. He also hinted that it might be time for the seminary to leave its historic home on Union Street.

“We can’t ignore the fact that maintaining property like this campus may not be what we do in the future,” he said in November 2001. “We need to decide what we need out of this property in the 21st century. … What does a seminary look like without walls? We need to be willing to look at that and other trends in higher education.”

Imes said he understands that his legacy always will be linked to the move and the eventual sale of the old campus that is expected to be completed before he leaves. He said on Monday that his work on the strategic plan was equally important.

“I’m very optimistic,” he said, “that trustees will be able to call a new president who will not have to worry about whether we will survive and can focus on who shall we be.”