Evangelical Theological Seminary
Encyclopedia
Evangelical Theological Seminary is a graduate school
and interdenominational seminary located in Myerstown
, Pennsylvania
.
Evangelical is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Evangelical is also approved by the U.S. Department of Justice for the enrollment of non-immigrant, international students.
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
and interdenominational seminary located in Myerstown
Myerstown, Pennsylvania
Myerstown is a borough located in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lebanon, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the borough had a total population of 3,171...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
History
The Evangelical Congregational (EC) Church traces its roots to the conversion of Jacob Albright, a Pennsylvania German farmer, in a Methodist class meeting. His conviction was to bring the Christian faith to his neighbors at a time when the Methodist Church did not allow worship services to be conducted in the German language. His converts took the name Evangelische Gemeinschaft (Evangelical Association) in 1816, and the church prospered until the 1890s, when a large minority of the Association reorganized as the United Evangelical (UE) Church in 1894. Faculty and students from the Association’s Schuylkill Seminary moved to the former campus of Palatinate College in Myerstown in 1894 and established Albright College. Subsequently the college relocated to Reading, PA in 1928 after the Evangelical Association and the United Evangelical Church merged in 1922 to form the Evangelical Church which subsequently merged into The United Methodist Church. At the same time, the East Pennsylvania Conference and other congregations of the United Evangelical Church that had abstained from the merger reorganized as the Evangelical Congregational Church and bought the campus of the college that they had so long supported as the site for a publishing house, retirement home, and educational institution.Campus and locale
Located in the south-central Pennsylvania town of Myerstown, Evangelical’s twelve-acre campus is in the heart of the farmlands of Lebanon County, a culturally distinctive region. Harrisburg, the seat of government for the Commonwealth, is a short distance from campus.Academic program and accreditation
Evangelical offers thirteen masters degrees including the Master of Divinity, with five distinct tracks, the Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy which leads to state licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist, and the Master of Arts in Religion, with seven concentrations.Evangelical is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Evangelical is also approved by the U.S. Department of Justice for the enrollment of non-immigrant, international students.