Boston Minister Discusses Problems Of Post of Preacher to University

A minister who turned down the position of preacher to the University yesterday called the post one of the "most challenging in the country," and explained why he considered it so difficult.

The Rev. Theodore P. Ferris '29, rector of Trinity Church in Boston, told the CRIMSON that he had been offered the position shortly after the departure of the Rev. George A. Buttrick in June, 1960. He turned it down for a number of reasons having to do "purely with my own qualifications, and not with the job."

Officially known as the Plummer Professorship of Christian Morals, the post has lain open for three years. During this time visiting preachers and an acting minister, the Rev. R. Jerrold Gibson, have filled the pulpit. It has been rumored that a new University preacher may be appointed by President Pusey sometime this spring.

Ferris, one of the most respected preachers in the Episcopal Church today and currently a Visiting Scholar at Union Theological School in New York, explained that his chief consideration in turning down the Memorial Church pulpit had been his own job at Trinity Church, where he has served some 20 years. Also, however, he pointed out some of the dangers that he felt he would have encountered in an interdenominational and academic church community.

"It would be hard to keep from trying to make it into an Episcopal church," he said, and speculated that a minister from a nonconformist tradition might have an easier task. He also felt that someone "with greater experience and perhaps some status in the academic world would be better suited for the job."

Adding, however, that he had been "terribly attracted" by the offer, Ferris said he felt that the opportunities which it presented were tremendous, both in terms of the ministry to students and as a chance for the preacher to be part of the academic community.