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United Methodist Bishop to Direct Duke Program on Ministerial Excellence

In addition to running the new center, Kenneth L. Carder will serve on the divinity school faculty as professor of the practice of pastoral formation

DURHAM, N.C. -- Kenneth L. Carder, a bishop in the United Methodist Church, has been appointed director of the Duke University Divinity School's new Center for Excellence in Ministry, Dean L. Gregory Jones announced Wednesday.

The center will expand the school's focus on congregational and pastoral leadership, especially in rural churches, through such initiatives as the Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership project and the Royce and Jane Reynolds Program in Church Leadership, Jones said. In addition to tracking research and promising experiments, the center will sponsor conferences that bring together gifted practitioners, scholars and judicatory leaders, and design workshops and resources.

"Bishop Carder is the personification of ministerial excellence," Jones said. "He has shown himself to be a model of thoughtful, impassioned leadership for the church. We are delighted that he has accepted our offer to guide this important work as a full-time member of the Duke faculty."

A key function of the center will be to oversee a major coordination program in pastoral leadership. Last year, Duke's divinity school was selected by Lilly Endowment Inc. to coordinate the $84 million Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project, which involves 63 individual programs across the country.

Carder, who will serve on the divinity school faculty as professor of the practice of pastoral formation, succeeds Jackson W. Carroll. Carroll, who plans to retire in December, has directed Pulpit & Pew since its 1999 inception and is the Williams Professor Emeritus of Religion and Society.

"Duke's leadership in the study of pastoral excellence is helping shape the future of the church," Carder said. "My participation in Pulpit & Pew's core seminar has been a rewarding experience, and I am excited about the theological path that Duke's research is taking. I look forward to focusing on the formation of pastoral leaders through teaching in the classroom as well as helping to forge a new direction for the center."

Carder, 63, has been the resident Methodist bishop for the Mississippi area since 2000 and will serve there until he retires from the episcopacy in August 2004. Carder holds a doctorate in ministry degree from Vanderbilt. He has spent 32 years in ministry with congregations in Tennessee, Maryland and Virginia, and taught widely in the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe. Carder is also president of the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church, and co-chair of the Council of Bishops' subcommittee on theological education.

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Duke Divinity School, one of seven professional schools on the Duke campus, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It enrolls about 475 students from more than 30 denominations.