Association of Theological School's List of 'Affiliate' Institutions

The Association of Theological Schools has affiliates as well:

http://216.151.81.21/about/affiliates.asp

They describe affiliate status this way:

Organizations holding affiliate status with ATS are not members of the Association. They are organizations with a substantial interest in theological education but not involved in educational programs leading to a degree, or they are schools offering graduate theological degrees and related to identifiable communities of faith not specified in Article II, Section 2.15 of the ATS Bylaws [Christian and Jewish faiths]. These organizations are elected, upon recommendation of the ATS Board of Directors, as ATS affiliates by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting at a meeting of the Association. Affiliate status carries eligibility for appointment to committees and voice but no vote in Association meetings...

Many of the affiliates are very mainstream church organizations of a distinctly non-evangelical sort.

American Baptist Churches USA National Ministries

Congregational Foundation for Theological Studies

The Episcopal Church the Office for Ministry Development

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Division For Ministry
Department for Theological Education

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Office of Theological Education

Reformed Church in America Office for Ministry

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Ministerial Credentialing Office

The United Church of Canada
Faith Formation and Education

United Methodist Church, Division of Ordained Ministry, Board of Higher Education and Ministry

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Bishops' Committee of Priestly Formation

But there a few educational institutions as well. While affiliate status certainly isn't accreditation, the fact that it requires a two-thirds vote of the ATS membership does suggest a vote of confidence:

Auburn Theological Seminary
3041 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212-662-4315
Fax: 212-663-5214
Website: www.auburnsem.org
President: Barbara G. Wheeler

(Auburn is interesting. It's Presbyterian and it shares a campus with Union Theological Seminary in New York, despite being formally separate. Union offers the degree programs while Auburn offers continuing education programs for clergy and laity. I like it.)

Dharma Realm Buddhist University
2001 Talmage Road
Talmage, CA 95481-0217
Phone: 707-462-5486
Fax: 707-462-0949
Website: www.drba.org
President: Snjezana Akpinar

(This is one of my favorites from the CA-approved list. Its chancellor is one of my former SFSU professors, Ronald Epstein. He studied for his Ph.D. at Berkeley with Lewis Lancaster, who is now the president of the (CA-approved but WASC-candidate) University of the West.)

The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences
45150 Russell Branch Parkway
Suite 303
Ashburn, VA 20147
Phone: 571-223-0500
Fax: 571-223-0544
Website: www.siss.edu
Executive Dean and Registrar: Ahmed Alwani

(This is part of something called Cordoba University, which appears to be Virginia-licensed. They offer an MA in Islamic Studes.)

Institute of Buddhist Studies
PO Box 390460
Mountain View, CA 94039-0460
Phone: 650-938-7192
Fax: 650-938-5937
Website: www.shin-ibs.edu
Dean: Richard K. Payne

(This one is busy building a brand new facility in Berkeley. It is the seminary of the Buddhist Church of America. Despite being CA-approved, it's an affiliate of the Graduate Theological Union and offers its masters degree jointly with the GTU. IBS also teaches classes for the GTU's Ph.D. program in Historical and Cultural Studies in Religion. Despite its small size, IBS has a lively intellectual life, publishing its own journal and sponsoring joint speakers series with Berkeley and Stanford. IBS is the recipient of a prestigious Numata endowed chair, just like Harvard and Oxford.)

Lutheran Bible Institute in California
5321 University Drive, Suite G
Irvine, CA 92612
Phone: 949-262-9222
Toll-free: 800-261-5242
Fax: 949-262-0283
Website: www.lbic.org
President: Samuel H. Giesy

(This is associated with Concordia University in Irvine. (Why is every Lutheran school on earth seemingly named 'Concordia'?) It offers classes for students, clergy and the community, but it doesn't seem to offer degrees.)

The Seventh Day Baptist School of Ministry
3120 Kennedy Road
PO Box 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
Phone: 608-752-5055
Fax: 608-752-7711
Website: www.sdbministry.org
Executive Director: Gordon P. Lawton

(This offers an ordination course for member of this small denomination, but it apparently doesn't grant degrees.)

 

For further irony, I am taking classes at an ATS Catholic school that will not accept transfer credit from another Catholic school unless the latter is also ATS, even if it is RA-but-not-ATS.

 

Thanks for an informative post, Bill.

But cheer up. None of the tertiary schools associated with the Wisconsin Ev. Luth. Synod, the "Little Norwegian" ELS Synod, the Lutheran Church of Central Africa, or the Ev. Luth. Freikirche in Deutschland is named Concordia. That moniker is almost always used by the liberal Missouri Synod and its affiliates, although there is an ELCA (that is, very liberal/ecumenical) school by that name in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Actually, the term "Concordia" refers back to the "Book of Concord" ("Concordia" in Latin), which is the compilation of doctrinal statements binding upon confessional Lutherans. The earliest document is the so-called Apostles' Creed from ca. 200 and the latest the Formula of Concord from 1577-1580.