March 2008 E-Newsletter 

Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
3401 Brook Road
Richmond, VA 23227

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Glenn Birch
Phone: 804.278.4306
FAX: 804.355.5648
E-mail: gbirch@union-psce.edu

Commencement Plans in Charlotte and Richmond

Richmond, VA — March 18, 2008 — Union-PSCE will hold graduating ceremonies in Charlotte, NC, and Richmond, VA this spring.

Graduation in Charlotte will be held April 26 at 10 a.m. at Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church, 2929 Selwyn Avenue, in Charlotte. Sixteen graduates will receive degrees in the third graduation ceremony to be held in Charlotte. Union-PSCE's extension program began there in 2002.

Steve Eason, pastor of Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. will be the preacher for the Charlotte commencement. Eason is a trustee of Union-PSCE.

In Richmond, the commencement service will be on May 31 at  Reveille United Methodist Church, 4200 Cary Street Road in Richmond. Commencement will be at 10 a.m. Sixty-six graduates will receive degrees. It is the 196th commencement since the seminary was established in 1812. Two students will receive two degrees in the dual M.Div./M.A.C.E. program.

Gary Charles, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA , will preach at the Richmond commencement. Charles is a trustee and alumnus of Union-PSCE.

One student planning to receive his degree at the Richmond service is Stewart Childress. The son of a Presbyterian pastor and 1958 Union Seminary graduate, Stewart took his courses at the Charlotte campus, but wants to honor his father by participating in the Richmond ceremony. Stewart is already serving as the pastor of two small churches in rural Virginia: Mayberry Presbyterian Church in Meadows of Dan and Bluemont Presbyterian Church in Fancy Gap.

Stewart's grandfather was 1926 Union Seminary graduate Bob Childress, a noted pastor and church-builder in Virginia's Blue Ridge whose life was chronicled in the book The Man Who Moved A Mountain by Richard C. Davids.