Seminary Enrollments Show Rare Dip

Overall enrollment at Christian seminaries in North America dipped slightly for this school year--the first drop in 16 years--although the numbers of women and minority students studying for the ministry continued to rise.

The trends were comparable at three Southern California Protestant schools, including Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena where the ranks of women students in particular rose--from 21% of the total student body to nearly 25% this year.

A general decline in recent years in the number of college and university undergraduates studying humanities “is now beginning to show” at the theological schools, which are graduate-level institutions, said a spokesman for the Assn. of Theological Schools, which released the seminary statistics this week.

Influx of Women

The effect of fewer students with bachelor’s degrees may have been muted at theological schools by the influx of women given new opportunities as clergy and a growing number of people turning to a second career in the ministry.

But officials say that even those growth trends may provide only a limited counterbalance to the smaller pool of undergraduates. The number of women seminarians showed the lowest annual increase (3%) last year in 16 years, and financial aid may not be enough for older, second-career clergy candidates with family expenses.

For the first year since the association began publishing data in 1969, total enrollment in Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theological schools dropped 0.16%--to 56,377 in the fall of 1985, from a total of 56,466 the year before. The increase from 1983 to 1984 had been 2.5%.

Full-time enrollment at the 196 U.S. and Canadian seminaries showed a 1.5% decline last fall, according to William Baumgaertner, associate director of the Assn. of Theological Schools, based in Vandalia, Ohio. He said the schools are experiencing “a steady increase in the number of candidates who are starting theological studies at a more advanced age when the responsibilities of family or of employment will not permit full-time involvement in study.”

Rise Over 1983

Fuller Seminary, second in enrollment only to the Southern Baptists’ Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex., registered 2,809 students last fall, down from a high of 2,938 in 1984 but still higher than their 2,775 students in 1983.

The School of Theology at Claremont likewise fell from 382 students in 1984 to 351 last fall. Registrar Harold Hewitt attributed the drop mainly to the departure of a large graduating class last year.

Talbot Theological Seminary, a part of Biola University in La Mirada, had a smaller decline--from 684 in 1984 to 671 in 1985.

“We’re concerned about recruitment for seminary students because there are fewer students coming from the undergraduate level,” said Wayne Chute, dean of admissions and records.

The only increase in enrollment at four Southland seminaries affiliated with the Assn. of Theological Schools was at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, which prepares priests for the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Average About 100

St. John’s registered 106 last fall, five more than the previous year, although the upswing may not signal a trend. St. John’s has averaged a little more than 100 seminarians for the last several years, according to Father Jeremiah McCarthy, the registrar.

Although the Catholic Church does not ordain women as priests, St. John’s has three female students attending part time this year.

Liberal-to-moderate seminaries benefited from an influx of women students after a succession of mainstream Protestant denominations ended their male-only restrictions on ordained ministers in the 1970s. In 1972, women made up 10.2% of the U.S. and Canadian seminary population; in 1985, they amounted to 25.8% of total enrollment. Not all female students are candidates for ordination.

The School of Theology at Claremont, a United Methodist seminary that serves primarily the mainstream denominations, saw a drop in actual numbers of women students last fall--138 from 145 the year before. However, the percentage of women students rose from 38% to 39% of the total.

More Women Students

Fuller Seminary, a more conservative institution that serves fewer denominations that ordain women, nevertheless has 702 women students this school year after 620 and 581 the two previous years. The 702 students amounts to 24.9% of the Fuller enrollment.

Even at Talbot Seminary, more to the right theologically than Fuller, the women students went up by five to 89 this school year, representing 13.3% of enrollment.

Racial and ethnic minority seminarians continued a modest but steady rise in numbers. Black students now make up 5.4% of seminary enrollments, Latinos 2.6% and Pacific/Asian-Americans 2.1% in North America.

Southern California seminaries have roughly comparable figures for minority students, except St. John’s Seminary, which has more Latino students--28, or more than one-quarter of its enrollment--and the Protestant seminaries, which have more students with an Asian or Pacific heritage, especially Korean, than the national average.

SEMINARY ENROLLMENT

1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Total enrollment 48,433 49,611 50,559 52,620 55,112 56,466 56,377 Women 10,204 10,830 11,683 12,473 13,451 14,142 14,572 Blacks 2,043 2,205 2,371 2,576 2,881 2,917 3,046 Latinos 822 894 955 1,180 1,381 1,314 1,454 Number of schools 193 194 193 196 195 197 196

Source: Assn. of Theological Schools