Shute Awarded Harkness Scholarship
General Board of Higher Education and Ministry
6/25/2011
Nancy K. Shute of Brookville, PA., currently serving in Gastonville, PA. in the Washington District, was one of 11 women chosen to receive the 2011-2012 Georgia Harkness Scholarship. Shute is preparing for ordination as an elder in The United Methodist Church and the scholarship will assist her in her studies at The Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
Shute and the other 10 Georgia Harkness scholars will attend the UMC Continuing Educators Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida.
The Rev. HiRho Park, the director of Continuing Formation for Ministry at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, said the seminary scholarships go to women over 35 who are preparing for ordination as elders in The United Methodist Church as a second career. The recipients are chosen by a committee of United Methodist elders and GBHEM staff.
Shute is a provisional member of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference. Her home church is Munderf Zion UMC in the Indiana District. Shute has served the WPA Conference as a licensed local pastor for the last ten years, and is currently serving as the pastor of Gastonville UMC in Gastonville, PA.
Harkness, the first woman theologian to teach in a Protestant seminary in the United States, dedicated her life to dismantling discrimination because of race and gender in The United Methodist Church and the world. Harkness taught at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and died in 1974. She was instrumental in the 1956 decision giving women full clergy membership in The Methodist Church.
Park said the scholarship program is a valuable investment in the future of the church.
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