SILVA-NETTO APPOINTED TO
UNITED METHODIST POST

Professor of Pastoral Care Dr. Ben Silva-Netto has been named associate general secretary of the General Council on Ministries of the United Methodist Church.

Silva-Netto will leave ABSW this spring after 16 years on the faculty.

"We are grateful to Ben for his many contributions to the life of ABSW over the years," said President Keith Russell. "Ben has embodied pastoral care in his teaching and in his relating to students."

Silva-Netto came to Berkeley in 1985 as an ABSW professor and member of the core doctoral faculty at the Graduate Theological Union. He taught an introductory class in ministry as well as courses in pastoral care, counseling and functional theology. For the past two years, he also taught Methodist studies courses at the Pacific School of Religion.

Prior to joining the ABSW faculty, he was a pastor of churches in the Phillipines and the U.S., a hospital chaplain in Indianapolis, Ind., and director of a counseling center in Chicago, Ill.He earned a bachelor of divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in Cavite, Phillipines, a master of sacred theology degree at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, doctor of ministry at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, and Ph.D. from Northwestern University and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.

Silva-Netto is a longtime leader in the United Methodist church. An ordained elder, he has served as pastor of Methodist congregations in Stockton and San Leandro, Calif. He is a co-chairperson of the Diversity Initiative under the Commission on Religion and Race of the Annual Conference. He has been a member of the board of directors of the National Federation of Asian American United Methodists and president of the National Association of Filipino American United Methodists.