(RNS) Barbara Wheeler, one of the first women to head a theological school in the U.S., will be succeeded in July by another woman as president of New York City’s Auburn Theological Seminary, the school announced Thursday (Feb. 19).
Katharine Rhodes Henderson, currently the seminary’s executive vice president, will become president on July 1, according to Auburn.
Wheeler, who headed the Presbyterian-founded seminary for more than 20 years, will assume full-time leadership of Auburn’s Center for Study of Theological Education, a think tank for theological and rabbinical schools.
“I don’t think presidency for life is good for either small countries or small seminaries,” Wheeler told the independent Presbyterian Outlook. “It really is time for new leadership for Auburn and for an undivided focus on theological education.”
Henderson, who had been heading the seminary’s day-to-day operations, is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and author of “God’s Troublemakers: How Women of Faith are Changing the World.”
Auburn relocated to New York City during the Great Depression and shares a campus with Union Theological Seminary. Auburn does not grant traditional seminary degrees, but rather serves as a think tank and research institute for issues affecting religious leaders and religious education.