1958 association; 1994 incorporation; 2012 name change · event
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries: learning together
Two Mennonite seminaries built an academic partnership that gradually became one institution at Elkhart.
Also searchable as: Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries · Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary · Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary · AMBS · Elkhart seminary
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries began in the 1958–1959 academic year as a cooperative arrangement between Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Goshen Biblical Seminary. The former represented the General Conference Mennonite Church, while the latter belonged to the Mennonite Church. Their agreement initially preserved each school’s organizational and financial independence while making shared courses, library cooperation, and student cross-registration possible. The Institute of Mennonite Studies was established as a joint undertaking.
Mennonite Biblical Seminary moved from Chicago to Elkhart in 1958; Goshen’s seminary joined it there in 1969. Cooperation deepened into a common curriculum and faculty, followed by incorporation as one seminary in 1994 according to the institution’s history. In August 2012 its name became Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. The change retained the AMBS initials while expressing its Anabaptist understanding of following Jesus. The chart’s plural “Seminaries” and its 1958 date record the original association, rather than the later legal merger.
Sources for this history: [1] [2]
