University of Redlands, Marin Campus Events

OUR RICH HISTORY IN SAN FRANCISCO & MARIN

In 1871, San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) began with four professors and four students meeting at the Presbyterian City College in what now is Union Square in Nov. 1871. Six years later, the Seminary moved to its own building at 121 Haight Street in San Francisco.

In 1890 the Board voted to accept the offer of a 14-acre hilltop site in San Anselmo from Arthur W. Foster, seminary trustee, and original instructor William Anderson Scott's son-in-law. The pioneer financier and philanthropist Alexander Montgomery donated the money for student and faculty housing, and the well-stocked library. In Sept. 1892, Montgomery and Scott Halls were dedicated and the San Anselmo campus opened.

ROOTED IN SOCIAL JUSTICE

From its early days, students came from around the Pacific Rim and graduates went into missions abroad. One-third of students in 1922 were women, mostly as special or mission course students. In 1962, SFTS joined with neighboring theological schools in founding the Graduate Theological Union, a consortium based in Berkeley that provides an institutional framework for interfaith discussion and education.

In 1965 a cohort of over 60 students and faculty participated in the March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The SFTS group assisted with setting up and guarding the campsites where the marchers slept. Seminary President Theodore Gill (who shut down the seminary for students and faculty to travel across the country) marched alongside faith and political leaders including Rabbi Abraham Heschel, Rep. John Lewis, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Institutional commitment to social justice continued into the 1970s when SFTS hosted His Holiness, the Dalai Lama shared his global message of peace atSFTS. Throughout the past few decades (and even now) SFTS theologically and litigiously fights for the rights of LGBTQIA+ persons. Beginning in 2017, SFTS hosts annual Womanist Symposiums featuring leading Womanist scholars from across the country. Have you heard of the groundbreaking Beyonce Mass? This international, inclusive, and affirming worship service began here, in the class, “Beyonce and the Hebrew Bible.”

A NEW CHAPTER

In 2019, the seminary was embedded in the University of Redlands as part of a new Graduate School of Theology. This recent union creates a new kind of seminary for the 21st century—one that preserves the core values and programs of SFTS while offering new academic excellence to a broader audience for a hopeful, loving engagement with the world.