Generalities

As individuals and faith communities find their way in the public square in the 21^st century, the work of theological consortia, such as the Boston Theological institute (BTI), are finding that they are increasingly valued resources. The BTI, as such a resource in the Greater Boston area, celebrates the university divinity schools, free-standing schools of theology and seminaries that represent its identity – Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Protestant and Evangelical that serve as its constituent members, a “university of theology” in the Boston area and a consortium that has grown to welcome the challenge of seekers, fellow travelers and those representing other faith traditions. For close to half a century the schools of the BTI have promoted cooperation, coordination and collaboration, thereby fostering interdenominational and interfaith exchange.

Courses

With over 4000 students in its member institutions, the BTI is one of the liveliest places for theological study. Scientific, humane and rights-oriented research institutes, university resources and a theological tradition that dates back to 1636 are brought together in over 1000 courses available to BTI students. This platform for cross-registration is augmented by shared library facilities, field education sites, website and publications. From its onset, programs open to all in the consortium have developed innovative areas for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, faculty colloquia, local and international workshops and academic certificates.

These areas of activity have highlighted the three purposes that lay behind the creation of the consortium: the utility that comes from cooperation, ecumenical dialogue and a common social witness. Utility has been achieved over the years through shared faculty, the availability of common library resources and other administrative means. Ecumenism has been expressed through faculty exchanges, joint research projects and publications and an active certificate program that draws upon all of the schools. Social witness has come through shared programming and activities that have reached out to natural constituencies, churches and other networks of social engagement.  Examples of continuing activity include the following:

Patterns of Instruction, Colloquia and Cross-registration

1. One-fifth to one-quarter of students attends a course in a member school other than their own in any given semester. This kind of exchange is not only important for the immediacy of course offerings and needs, but creates ecumenical relationships that are valuable in later spheres of ministry.
2. Courses are offered jointly by faculty representing different institutions. Over the history of the consortium this practice has expanded and contracted given needs and interests.

3. Faculty colloquia, important in their own right, have frequently spawned on-going research projects and even institutes for the benefit of all BTI schools, such as the recently established Pappas Patristic Institute at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

Utility as Highlighted in Library Activity and Other Publications

1. The BTI Library Directors began innovative work with a Union List of Serials early in the consortium’s history. This set a pattern for later cooperative practices.
2. BTI Librarians promoted common access through computerization to member institutions’ libraries and book availability. This pattern has deepened with current technologies. Currently the BTI is exploring, together with the Library Directors, forms of shared digital databases developed in concert with faculty.

3. A shared catalogue and website brings to every student, faculty member and others in the consortium the full range of course availability. Other publications of mutual interest are produced as appropriate. 

Field Education and Ministry

1. Shared Field Education sites permit students at one school to “use” local sites under the supervision of another school.
2. New Field Education sites are frequently developed with mutual support, as areas of social witness such as prison ministry, ministry among the homeless and with immigrants and refugees and youth populations at risk.

3. Field Education Directors share in the planning of an annual Bereavement Seminar and in identifying “best practices” in Field Education.

Evolution of Programs

Beginning in 1991, the BTI began two innovative programs that led to certificates granted by cooperative faculties from the member schools, but monitored through the consortium. These were in areas that have spawned regional and international conferences and academic projects which have included books, videos and other educational materials.

1. Programming in religion and human rights became a focal area of discussion through the 1990s. Stimulated by BTI annual ecumenical workshops in different regions of the world, local and international conferences have evolved in relation to the concerns of international mission and ecumenism. This work has led to a Certificate in International Mission and Ecumenism granted through the consortium.
2. Issues of religion and ecology were pursued with the assistance of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Union of Concerned Scientists as well as other religious and scientific entities and institutions. This work helped to create the platform for wider spheres of inquiry in science and religion and has led to a Certificate in Science and Religion through a series of tracks that define different areas of science expertise. While currently undergoing revision, this area signals important reflection necessary for ministry in our day.
3. In parallel fashion with these programs and their certificates, faculty representing youth and young adult ministry studies and concerned about the education of the next generation of faith, have come together to foster a work through the consortium in Youth and Young Adult Ministry Studies.
4. Similarly, work in religion and violence and with the World Council of Churches’ Program Decade to Overcome Violence, has contributed to more focused work through the consortium in Religion and Conflict Transformation. 

Trustee Retreats in 2002 and after have affirmed the ongoing vitality and viability of the Boston Theological Institute. The new BTI mission statement (2009) and its core programming were confirmed with new initiatives in religion and conflict transformation. This area drew upon themes related to ecumenism and social witness that began at the inception of the consortium, were raised up anew in the 1990s and now find themselves so intertwined in confronting the challenge of structural inequities and of global violence today. Innovative programming in BTI schools and a Certificate in Religion and Conflict Transformation represent aspects of cutting edge research and teaching being done in BTI schools today. All of this is related back to the core theological ideas that drive each of the BTI schools and their faith communities.

Ecumenism – and also Interfaith Reflection and Activity – continue to grow through the BTI and its member schools contributing insight and concentric circles of shared concern and activity appropriate to the needs of the public square today. Much current work revolves around the World Council of Churches Decade to Overcome Violence. In addition to the array of activity described already, students and faculty have access to such new areas of engagement as have emerged in recent years:  

1. A Th.D. in Missiology is available through the cooperation of Boston University School of Theology and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary;
2. The move of Weston Jesuit School of Theology onto the property of Boston College, and reconstituted as the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, opens new opportunities for ecclesial and university dialogue;
3. The construction of Hebrew College (1995) and opening of its non-denominational rabbinical school permits deeper Jewish-Christian dialogue in the consortium; 
4. Faculty Task Forces in such areas as Ecclesiology and in Overcoming Violence, in partnership with the National and World Council of Churches;
5. Ecumenical and Interfaith programming related to issues of Covenant, Community and Human Sexuality in partnership with the Interreligious Center on Public Life (1999);
6. Annual programming that opens with a conference on “Religion and Conflict” and ends with an ecumenical workshop in some region of the world at the end of the academic year, in partnership this year with the Korea Peace Institute;
7. Specific student and faculty work related to the Decade to Overcome Violence of the World Council of Churches;
8. Specific student and faculty participation in the Children of Abraham Project;
9. Work with local urban communities around issues of violence, forgiveness, restorative justice and reconciliation in partnership with the Fundacion para la Reconciliacion (Bogotá, Colombia).
10. Science-Religion programming on theology and human nature with the Metanexus Institute.

As we continue to find our way forward as communities of faith in the 21^st century, the theological institutions that nurture those communities will find themselves increasingly in consortia-type relationships. The ecumenical work that began in the early years of the twentieth century, that was stimulated so profoundly by the work of Vatican II, and that has promoted bi-lateral and inter-confessional agreements through the end of the twentieth century, now finds itself challenged by issues of interfaith allegiances and a social agenda that requires the work of the full range of theological expression made possible in theological consortia.