"The taking of a leaf is the cutting of the root of clinging. When this root is finally cut, you are safe as the original body of all life appears to deluded minds." –@KosenGregSnyder

Read more about the Ordination of the Cherry Trees: https://t.co/mWSN5ypQJY pic.twitter.com/PO5uG8AWCB

— Union Seminary (@UnionSeminary) July 15, 2021

But today is not a funeral. It is a joyful occasion. The ordination ceremony we will be performing today will ordain these seven Japanese cherry trees as Soto Zen priests. The ordination of trees is a custom that started in Thailand and spread throughout Asia. It is a way of protecting trees by acknowledging them as sacred, honoring their precious lives, and recognizing all that they do for us. [Source]

The history of Union Theological Seminary in New York, which was established in 1836 to train primarily Presbyterian ministerial students in the area, is reported. The institution has since evolved into a nondenominational graduate school of theology in the Christian tradition, and in recent decades has trained some students from other religions. Attention is directed to the seminary’s growth, influence, and struggles during its century and a half, along with the careers of many of the important persons at the college, including Edward Robinson, Philip Schaff, Charles A. Briggs, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Henry Sloane Coffin. Also considered are a number of controversies that have arisen because of the position the seminary has taken on certain theological and social issues. These issues include support of Briggs during his trials for heresy between 1891 and 1893 and the seminary’s relations with Columbia University, its Morningside Heights neighbor, during the university’s turbulent 1968 rebellions. It is noted that Union Theological Seminary played an important role in the rise of the ecumenical movement, beginning with the Briggs trials. It also has been important to religious and educational history—Robert T. Handy

Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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