Philadelphia, PA, October 28, 2004 — Over 350 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of Westminster Theological Seminary gathered Wednesday night, October 20, in Rust Auditorium on the Philadelphia campus to celebrate the Seminary’s 75th anniversary.
Seminary President Samuel T. Logan, Jr. opened the Anniversary Thanksgiving Service with a humorous historical overview featuring the October 20, 1929 edition of the New York Times. A colorful parade of flags spotlighted current students from 27 nations other than the United States. Representatives of the student body, faculty, board, and administration led the congregation in hymns, Scripture reading, and prayers of thanksgiving and intercession. Sinclair B. Ferguson, professor of systematic theology at Westminster’s Texas campus, preached a message titled “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” from 2 Timothy 3:1–4:8.
After the service, the crowd enjoyed cookies and cider at a reception, and browsed a new photography exhibit. “’An honest foundation of devotion to God’s Word’: Celebrating 75 Years of Westminster Theological Seminary” documents some of the historic and mundane moments of Westminster’s first 75 years, and is on display in Van Til Hall through December. The title of the exhibit is taken from the Seminary’s first convocation address, delivered by J. Gresham Machen on September 25, 1929.
A brief history and mission state-ment is available at www.wts.edu. Westminster Theological Seminary was founded in 1929 to train men for the ordained ministry, to train men and women for service in the church and in the world, and to serve as a center for Christian research and scholarship.
Informally related to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Korean-American Presbyterian Church, and similar conservative churches, Westminster’s graduates serve in these three denominations and in nearly 100 others. Westminster currently has approximately 800 students from 39 countries. Besides the main campus in suburban Philadelphia, Westminster has a campus in Dallas, Texas, and programs of study in New York, London, and Seoul.