[Church Divinity School of the Pacific] On Monday [Dec. 12], it was discovered that the Church Divinity School of the Pacific mailroom at St. Margaret’s Courtyard beneath Parsons Hall had been broken into over the weekend. A postal box containing an undetermined amount of office mail and a number of packages was stolen.

Letters to CDSP students plus some GTU students living in Parsons Hall had been distributed to student mailboxes following the Saturday mail delivery. The rest of that delivery – all CDSP office mail plus packages – was stolen. It could not be determined whether any of the mail in the student mailboxes was stolen in the burglary.

The Berkeley, California police are investigating, and the lock has been replaced.

This mailroom door faces St. Margaret’s Courtyard. It had for years been used to store CDSP office mail and packages delivered on Saturdays or when the campus was closed.

This practice has been stopped, effectively immediately.

The burglary occurred at a time when donations to the seminary’s AnnualFund are arriving daily, following fall direct mail and online appeals.

“This represents the possible loss of thousands of dollars,” said Richard Felton, the school’s Chief Advancement Officer.  “Weekend mail during December is always filled with gifts to the seminary.”

“At this time of the year, hundreds of friends and supporters give generously to help fund the on-going educational programs at CDSP,” he said. “ We are always grateful for their support as it provides scholarships and helps pay the salaries of our professors and staff.”

“There’s no way of knowing how many checks were stolen.”

He urged CDSP donors to send replacement checks if their gifts mailed last week don’t clear the banks in December, and to carefully monitor their credit card and bank accounts in case they had included any personal financial information with their donations.