Key gift propels next step in YDS ‘Living Village’ project
Buoyed by a key donation and the selection of distinguished project partners, Yale Divinity School is taking a crucial step forward in planning its proposed “Living Village”—believed to be the most ambitious living-building residential project in the world. Intent on making a powerful theological statement, restoring the Divinity School’s historic residential character, and educating students on sustainable living practices, YDS plans to build a housing complex that derives all its energy from the sun and all its water from onsite rainfall. The planning steps are being funded by a $2 million gift from longtime Divinity School supporter George Bauer. Acclaimed living-building pioneer Jason McLennan of Seattle has been enlisted to guide the project, with living-building design experts Bruner/Cott & Associates of Massachusetts selected as partner architects. “YDS is poised to make history,” Dean Greg Sterling said of the complex, which will house about 150 students. “This project will transform how every college and university thinks about residential buildings in the future.”
Conference examines the church of the twenty-first century
Some 175 scholars, clergy, theologians, and students gathered at YDS in April for “Inspire: The Church in the Twenty-first Century,” a three-day conference on Christianity in its third millennium. Convened just months after the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, the conference candidly acknowledged declining church membership, shrinking seminary enrollments, and other challenges facing Christianity. But a sense of energy and hope animated the featured talks and break-out sessions, which covered such themes as eco-theology, global Christianity, the role of church in social change, and new forms of church coming into view. If a single message emerged, it was that the church will regain its relevance only as it embodies Christian principles of social equality, economic justice, and earth stewardship.
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