-11/- Atcr,z, GLEANER June 11, 1985
RENOWNED ARCHAEOLOGIST ACCEPTS ATLANTIC UNION COLLEGE PRESIDENCY
By Gary Gray, College Relations
r. Lawrence T. Geraty, 45, accepted the official invita- A passionate interest in archaeology has consumed Dr. Gera- tion of the Board of Trustees of Atlantic Union College ty ever since he sat in Dr. Siegfried Horn's classes as a student. on May 2, 1985, to serve as twenty-third president. Coupled with a youth spent in the Middle East, he has pursued D this interest with vigor. Since 1972, he has led or participated in He was born in California to Adventist missionaries and grew up in the Orient and the Middle East. numerous trips to the Middle East to excavate archaeological Currently, Dr. Geraty is professor of archaeology and history sites, culminating in becoming the Editor-in-Chief of the Final of antiquity at Andrews University, where he also directs the In- Excavation Reports of the Archaeological Expedition to Tell stitute of Archaeology and is the Curator of the Siegfried H. Hesbon in Jordan. Dr. Geraty continues this commitment to Horn Archaeological Museum. Previously, he was an assistant editorial duties with a number of leading archeological publishing director of the Central California Conference, a journals. Dr. Geraty has edited four books, contributed to 20 pastor in the Southeastern California Conference, and a others, while also authoring 70 articles for denominational jour- teaching Fellow in Old Testament at Harvard University. nals and 35 articles for scholarly journals. An ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister, Dr. Geraty was Among the organizations which have given grants and educated at Pacific Union College where he received a scholarships to Dr. Geraty to help fund various research projects bachelor's degree and at Andrews University where he was in the field of archeology are Harvard University, the govern- granted both a Master's and a Bachelor of Divinity, summa cum ment of Israel, the National Endowment for the Humanities, laude. He has also studied in France, England and Germany. In and the American Schools of Oriental Research. He has also 1972 he earned a Ph.D. with distinction in Old Testatment and received a number of other awards and honors, including the Syro-Palestinian Archaeology with distinction from Harvard Baker Book House Award, Outstanding Young Men, and University. Who's Who in Religion. Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan named
(L to R) Dr. Siegfried H. Horn, retired Seminary professor of Archaeology, Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan• Dr. Geraty in the Middle East. Dr. Geraty was chosen as an advisor on Archaeology to Prince Hassan.
June 11, 1985, Vol. LXXXIV, No. I I. The Atlantic Union GLEANER (USPS 036-280) is published twice monthly by the Atlantic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 400 Main Street, South Lancaster, MA 01561. Printed by Atlantic Graphic Services, Inc., South Lancaster, MA 01561. Second-class postage paid at South Lancaster, MA. 01561. Annual subscription C4 nn DncTM ACM/ • 0,nr1 arlrlrocc rhanapc to Atlantic I Ininn /7! FANFR P Rne I IR9 Smith I.anracter MA (11561 him as an advisor in archaeology. He also holds membership in various scholarly organizations and professional organizations, mostly related to his work in archeology. In his introduction to the faculty and students of AUC on May 2, Dr. Geraty made a brief statement about what he envisions life at AUC to be. Part of that statement is quoted here: "I see us as a diverse community, recognizing and celebrating our dif- ferences but working together in unity as a family toward a com- mon goal. I see us as a worshipping community where lives and service are dedicated to God and His will for us. This means that we, our policies, our programs, have to be guided by Christian principles and standards. I see people as more important than institutions, and I hope that all the time the regulations and the institution will serve the students' and faculty's interests. I see us as a family, where people who are affected by a decision, will be involved in reaching those decisions. I see us as an intellectual community where thinking can flourish; where we are not mere- ly reflecting other people's thoughts. A place where excellence is fostered; a place where ideas can be expressed, remembering always our Christian context. I see us as a healthy, vibrant com- munity where the concept of wellness pervades our curriculum and activities, where the benefits of the Adventist way of life are demonstrated. I see AUC not only as an exciting place but a safe place, a place where students are safe socially, spiritually, physically and academically; safe enough to do a little risking now and then so that they can grow and mature." Dr. Geraty also announced that the Board of Trustees has voted an additional million dollars in subsidies over the next four years for AUC. About a half million of that amount will be available next year for renovation of the dormitories and mar- ried student housing. He has also expressed a concern about the high cost of college education. In relation to this, the board has also voted a $500 scholarship to each returning AUC stu- dent for the 1985-86 school year and has recommended a $300,000 scholarship fund be set up specifically for students. Dr. Geraty is married to Gillian Keough who is a piano teacher. They have two children, Julie who is 20 and Brent who is 18. They are planning to move to New England sometime this summer. Dr. Geraty will officially assume his new responsibilities on July 1. Dr. Geraty in authentic Arab headgear on one of his many trips to the Middle East.
The Geraty family. (L. to R.) Brent, Dr. Geraty, Gillian and Julie are unbelievably hardy—tolerating cold, dampness, and endless walking and swimming. When hatchlings, only hours old, are led to water, their first instinct seems to be to dive, and they will swim farther than you'd think possible under water. The gander is very aggressive in protecting his nesting mate and both parents guard the young. In eight weeks they look like their parents. Before June 20, all adults (except those rare ones still nesting) shed their flight feathers and by the time they have grown new ones (usually by late July), the young can fly with them. When ice again covers the marsh- es, lakes and rivers, they head south where they can glean the harvested cornfields or graze on winter wheat or other grasslike plants. In recent years it has become common to raise Canada geese in government hatcheries and by private individuals (Federal and State permits required), and many areas have a resident population the year round. We have lived where this is true and fed them from goslings to adulthood in our yard. We have called them out of the sky to swim with us in the stream where they grew up with us. I once made a nest near our home that was immediately appropriated by the Canada geese and where they hatched a brood. I have some nesting now. But, whether they hatch in my yard or grow up in the wildest of wild, when they fly over honking and I see their The Thrilling Call powerful flight, I still get the same thrill that I knew as a boy in Maine when they irresistibly drew our eyes to the sky and we of Wildness watched 'til we could hear their call of wildness no more and they had disappeared into the hazy distance. When at last, after months of silence, we hear the rush of rivers again and bare patches appear in the fields, a thrilling sound of wildness drifts down from the sky. Sometimes it is faint and faraway—sometimes it comes closer—and becomes a loud clamoring a few hundred feet above our BIRTHRIGHT OR LENTILS? heads. Always it has an element of mystery because it speaks of a world inaccessible to us, a world, not limited to roads or land, far beyond the haunts of man. It can be heard anytime of day or night, in fog or bright sunshine. Nothing can quite compare with the call of the Canada goose. We look up, which is always good to do, and see them dimly through the misty clouds, or their V formation or long skeins way high in the sky—early morning, at sunset or silhouetted against the full moon. The long northern winter is ending. The Canada geese are heading for their nesting grounds. Some will go north of the arctic circle, to the Hudson Bay or the tundra. Almost im- mediately they will start nesting on a gravel bar by a river or high in a pine tree in an osprey nest. There is a large popula- tion near Loveland, Colorado, that have learned to nest in manmade nesting boxes atop eight- or ten-foot poles, away from ground predators such as coyotes. Normally, they lay five to seven four-inch-long white eggs two days apart, covering them carefully with small sticks or whatever rubbish is near, and eventually with down plucked from their bellies. This down not only makes the softest, best insulation possible, but also plucking it exposes the warm skin so that heat from the mother's body (about 102°) can be By Pedro Geli, Jr., Vice-president applied directly to the eggs. Twenty-eight days after incuba- Atlantic Union Conference tion begins some of the cutest babies in all nature are hatched. They are a soft, almost greenish yellow, mottled If we had the choice of having material benefits or assuring the with gray patches on top of their heads, sides and backs, so eternal salvation of someone, what would be our choice? Every that even with their black beaks, legs, feet and eyes, they are year thousands of parents and young people make important wonderfully camouflaged. You can be looking at one ten decisions which become a determining factor in the possible feet away and it may disappear right before your eyes. They future eternal life of these young people.
4 THE ATLANTIC UNION GLEANER
An important decision facing every young person is the tuition, an informal lifestyle where the students do as they choice of a career. As important as that decision is, the selection please, and the easy access to home and perhaps a large city. of where to obtain the needed education is of crucial impor- These and other factors tempt our young people to take the dive tance. The choice of the kind of career as well as the particular and leave Christian education aside. In evaluating the results, school, college, or university to provide the necessary training is however, we discover the shipwrecked lives of many who a vital one. It can strongly determine our course in life and in- thought they could swim in those waters. To their dismay, fluence our future beyond the academic years. dangerous undercurrents were discovered that caused not a few In considering the importance of making the right choices so to lose their faith and give up their religious experience. as to obtain a proper education, three questions come to mind: Some people, for the convenience of going to a school near- 1. Does it really make much difference whether a secular by or because of the prestigious name of the institution, have or religious education is chosen? decided to experiment with a secular education. After all, if 2. As long as it is a Christian school, does it matter where anything strange or dangerous.takes place, they are not obliged my son or daughter attends? to stay. But the influence on them is very subtle—the lectures 3. Can we really afford Christian education? given, the information shared, and the other people with whom they associate begin to take their toll. In time, the things of God In considering whether there is an important difference when do not have the same importance or evoke the same interest choosing between a secular or religious education, it is impor- they once did. Finally, like Esau, they come to the point where tant to note what the Bible says in Psalm 91:1, "He that dwelleth they are willing to sell their birthright for a plate of lentils in the secret place of the most High, shall abide under the (Genesis 25:30-34), for worldly interests take on more impor- shadow of the Almighty." Here it indicates clearly that those tance than the things of God. who live in close fellowship with God have a staying power—they abide. Recent research done in California shows that the longer a person spends in a Seventh-day Adventist educational institution, the more likely he is to "abide" with the church. This finding is in harmony with Proverbs 22:6 which says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." If the Adventist educational system is seen as an ongoing evangelistic program that helps to motivate, inspire, train, and keep our young people in a saving relationship with Christ, the tremendous importance of a religious education over a secular one becomes valued. It gives meaning, direction, and purpose The question of Jesus in Mark 8:36 awakens us to the reality to our existence. of this type of thinking: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall In reviewing the history of the beginnings of Christian educa- gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" In this text we tion, we note that the first school was in the Garden of Eden find a warning not to sell our birthright for temporal passing where Adam and Eve were the students and God was the things. Here is a declaration, in comparative form, of what is teacher. We discover that later it was Samuel who founded the truly of profit. We also find an invitation to restructure our schools of the prophets which were to serve as a refuge for the priorities and make God and the spiritual dimension of our ex- young people of his day. Today our schools are also to serve as istence the most important element in our lives. Let us not sell a refuge for our young people. It was planned that they would short the value of a Christian education. Our schools are provide a Christian environment where the students could ob- special—not because of the nice facilities, computers, scholar- tain the spiritual, intellectual, physical, and social development ships, the sports and social activities, or evn the academic stand- which will fit them for service to mankind and prepare them for ing a particular institution may have. Our schools are special citizenship in heaven. because of the presence of Jesus Christ in the classroom and in From a distance, the secular educational institution seems at- the hearts and lives of the faculty, staff, and students. tractive—ample facilities, a distinguished faculty, less expensive To be concluded in the next issue.