Kansas City, Mo ? When Lovett H. Weems Jr. became president of St. Paul School of Theology at age 38 he was the country’s youngest seminary president.

Now the Kansas City seminary is making history again. Weems’ successor, the Rev. Myron F. McCoy, becomes the first black to lead a predominantly white United Methodist seminary.

Both men believe the timing is right for their transitions this summer.

McCoy, 47, is coming from Chicago, where he has been senior pastor of the predominantly black 1,800-member St. Mark United Methodist Church for 11 years.

Weems, 56, is going to Washington, D.C., where he will be the distinguished professor of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary and founding director of the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership.

McCoy said St. Paul’s search committee consultant approached him last fall about being a candidate for the presidency.

“This was nothing I had thought about,” he said. “I was pretty comfortable at my church, and at the time we were just beginning a building project, so I didn’t think the time was right.”

President possibilities

This spring the consultant called him a second time, and he got the feeling God was trying to tell him something. By then construction at his church was well along.

As he met with the seminary committee and toured the campus, he could see possibilities of what a seminary president could contribute in the life of the church. He was named president in May and starts his duties Aug. 1.

“A lot of colleagues, both white, black, Hispanic and Korean, felt that this represents a breaking of another glass ceiling,” McCoy said. “But I don’t think that this is what St. Paul set out to do or even thought about. With some colleagues there is celebration, and with others, a sense of loss in terms of leadership in one of our stronger historic African-American churches in the denomination.”

‘Work with seminarians’

Leaving a congregation of 1,800 members for a seminary setting may give him the opportunity for more reflection and study, and he welcomes that. He also looks forward to working with the faculty and recruiting faculty and students.

“We live in a time where there is so much contention in the church,” he said. “I welcome the opportunity to work with seminarians who can come to recognize and appreciate one another, to develop persons who can become bridge builders.”

McCoy brings both the practical and academic sides of ministry to the presidency. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from Ohio Wesleyan University, his master’s of divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and his doctorate of ministry from United Theological Seminary.

He serves as chair of the General Board of the United Methodist Publishing House and was a member of the board of trustees at Garrett-Evangelical seminary, where he served as adjunct professor preaching. He also has served on many national church and local community boards.