Brite Divinity School opens new Houston facility
Newly enrolled Brite Divinity School students will be taking the first ever classes at the school’s new Houston facility via interactive video.
By Joi Harris
Staff Reporter

Brite Divinity School’s new Houston Center is helping five new students decide whether the ministry is for them without having to step foot in Fort Worth.

They are doing so from the Divinity School’s new addition at Memorial Drive Christian Church in Houston. A $100,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation and approval from the Brite board of trustees set this project in motion, said Brite’s Acting President Ann Sewell.

“There was a real interest by the Disciples of Christ churches in Houston to have the facilities of Brite conveyed to them,” said interim dean David Gouwens.

The funds from the grant were used to buy and install equipment for the center. Since many of Brite’s students are non-traditional, he said, the attraction to the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation was that the Houston Center would allow older students to test the waters of seminary education without having to uproot their whole families. Brite is the only Disciples of Christ seminary in Texas.

Joe Rutland, 38, a copy editor for the Houston Chronicle, said that his decision to attend seminary came after a four-year internal struggle about his worthiness after receiving the call to ministry. He said his first class went well, but there are a few kinks in the video conference system that need to be worked out.

“I was very impressed that Brite was able to use this technology to bring its program to the Houston community,” Rutland said.Brite currently has a three-year trial program scheduled with the Houston Center, according to a brochure. Although the enrollment of only five students might seem like a failure, Gouwens said the enrollment falls right in line with projections for this semester.

Three classes are being offered to Houston students this semester. Two will be broadcast from Fort Worth via interactive video to the five students, and there will be one class instructed in Houston by the center’s director Ray Owens, Sewell said.

The center became a full-functioning branch of the Divinity School Aug. 28.

The two classes being offered at Brite’s Fort Worth campus are Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling and Introduction to a Christian Theology of Religions, according to the Houston Center’s brochure.

Students will be able to take up to 27 hours in the Master of Divinity Program, which is one-third of the total requirement for the degree, Gouwens said. Students can also take up to 24 hours in the Master of Theological Studies and Master of Arts in Christian Service programs.