Pacific School of Religion
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Pacific School of Religion is an ecumenical seminary located in Berkeley, California. It maintains covenantal relationships with the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church and the Disciples of Christ, providing all necessary expectations for candidates to their ordained ministries. These three denominations account for half of PSR's students. It has also maintained close relationships with the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, the African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as many other denominations. Over the years PSR has provided training for clergy from twenty-four religious traditions including Buddhists, Jews, Pagans, Pentecostals, and Roman Catholics.
The school was founded in San Francisco in 1866 as the Pacific Theological Seminary. This makes it the oldest Protestant seminary west of the Mississippi. It moved to Oakland shortly following its foundation, and then to Berkeley in 1901, where it has remained since, at its current location since 1926.
The school was one of the first American seminaries to focus on both pan-denominational issues as well as the importance of the world's religions. In 1971 it graduated its first openly gay student and has remained a leader in advocating for GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) people within the religious community.
Until the Summer of 2009, the Pacific School of Religion had an institute specifically devoted to the study of Pacific Asian religion (the PANA Institute). It still has one devoted to gay studies, and is the only seminary in the United States to offer a degree in gay studies. It also is the home of the Swedenborgian House of Studies which is certified to train students for ordination in the General Convention of Swedenborgian Churches. The SHS owns the assets of the former Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton, Massachusetts.
The Pacific School of Religion joined as a member of the Graduate Theological Union of the San Francisco Bay Area in 1964. Also, throughout its history the Pacific School of Religion has cooperated and reciprocated with two neighboring Berkeley institutions, the University of California at Berkeley and the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, United Church of Christ (UCC.) The current President of PSR, since 1996, is William "Bill" McKinney, who also teaches in American religion. He has recently announced that he will retire at the end of the academic year of 2010.
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