Holy Name of Jesus and Mary Sister Elizabeth Liebert is the new rector
of the Presbyterian San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo.
"It's a very pedestrian appointment, sorry to say," said Liebert, one day after greeting new students during a reception at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, the Marin Independent Journal reports.
Liebert will serve a three-year term as the only dean at the graduate school in San Anselmo as well as vice president for academic affairs. She will be officially installed as dean Oct. 4 in a private dinner and reception.
She is not new to campus. She was a professor of spiritual life and a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, which she helped found. She is described as a pastoral theologian with a special interest in Christian spirituality.
"We are particularly pleased to be attaining an historic ecumenical milestone," seminary President Phil Butin said. "Dr. Liebert's deanship is a sterling example of SFTS's thoroughgoing commitment to ecumenical theological education."
Fr Joe Eagan of nearby St Anselm Catholic Church said Liebert has given several lectures at the church that were well received.
"I'm very pleased to hear this. She is a most capable person," Eagan said. "I would guess the Archbishop (George Niederauer) is pleased. He is a very ecumenical-minded person himself."
Liebert became the first Catholic to hold a tenured faculty position at the seminary in 1987 when she became director of the program in Christian spirituality. She helped found the seminary's master of divinity concentration in Christian spirituality, the diplomas in the art of spiritual direction and spiritual formation studies, and the special emphasis in Christian spirituality in the doctor of ministry.
"When I applied for my position here in 1987, it was relatively uncontroversial for a Catholic sister to be employed by an institution that wasn't Catholic," Liebert said, "but it took 20 years to get to that point. I would say this would've been unthinkable before Vatican II, but in the U.S. now this probably wouldn't raise many eyebrows.
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Roman Catholic nun settles in as dean at San Anselmo seminary (Marin Independent Journal)
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