Mark Markuly, dean of STM, announced that STM faculty member, Mark Lloyd Taylor, has accepted a new position as the Director of Worship. In this role, Dr. Taylor will spend the next year integrating more intentionally and thoroughly the worship moment into the STM curriculum.

During the course of the next year, Dr. Taylor will keep all issues revolving around worship and liturgy before the STM faculty, exploring their perspectives of the nature and purpose of worship and liturgy in a graduate degree program and how it relates to the different theological disciplines. He will also assess the perceptions and needs among students and denominational leaders. By the end of the academic year, Dr. Taylor will have some new models for liturgy and worship that STM faculty will use to make decisions on enhancing worship's place in the STM's internationally-recognized ecumenical curriculum.

STM offers regular worship experiences on the campus of Seattle University throughout the academic year. The school also plays a leadership role with other religious organizations in liturgical celebrations offered to the Puget Sound region, such as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and Yom HaShoah, an interfaith liturgical memorial of the Holocaust.

Worship and liturgy are a challenge for all seminaries and schools, even those with residential student populations. While the demanding schedules of students can make regular attendance a problem, an even bigger challenge is the appropriate way a graduate school makes use of communal prayer as an educational event, when it is primarily a sacred personal and communal moment of communication with God.

Jan Cherry, MDiv with PMC in Transforming Spirituality '07, ELCA Diaconal Minister, is the STM ecumenical liturgical coordinator and will continue in her position. For information on our community prayer life, visit http://www.seattleu.edu/stm/corporateprayer.aspx