International Mission Director for Presbyterian Church to Lecture at Princeton Seminary on Transnational Mission Partnerships

Princeton, NJ, January 10, 2008–The Reverend Dr. Marian McClure, former director of the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (USA), will give the Frederick Neumann Memorial Lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary on Monday, February 11 at 7:00 p.m. Her lecture is titled, “What Friends We Have in Jesus: The Leavening Effect of Transnational Mission Partnerships.”

McClure served as director of the Worldwide Ministries Division of the 2.3 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) from 1997 through 2006. She was responsible for more than 400 mission and field staff, 100 United States-based staff, 165 interdenominational mission partnerships, and a $45-million budget through which she led the ecumenical visioning and implementation for international evangelism, education and health, global disaster assistance, anti-poverty work, and interfaith relations. She also represented the denomination at meetings of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, and as a delegate to the Vatican.

She previously served as coordinator of global education and international leadership development and associate for special receipts and relations with foundations for the Presbyterian Church (USA), and as program officer for the Ford Foundation in Mexico City, Mexico.

McClure holds a doctorate in political science from Harvard University, where she wrote a dissertation titled “The Catholic Church and Rural Social Change: Priests, Peasant Organizations, and Politics in Haiti.” She has written for various publications, including a foreword in Scott Sunquist’s forthcoming book, Presbyterian Mission History: 1944–2004, and a guest editorial on “Creative Changes in International Mission” in The Presbyterian Outlook.

She is the reporting secretary for the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches, a minister member of Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky, and a member of the American Society of Missiology.

The Frederick Neumann Memorial Lecture was established in 1983 by Dr. Edith Neumann in memory of her husband, Frederick Neumann (1899–1967), a philosopher, biblical scholar, missionary, and pastor.

The lecture will take place in the Main Lounge of the Mackay Campus Center, followed by a reception in the Private Dining Room. It is open to the public and free of charge. For more information, call the Communications/Publications Office at 609.497.7760 or visit www.ptsem.edu.

Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812, the first seminary established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. It is the largest Presbyterian seminary in the country, with more than 700 students in seven graduate degree programs.