After being battered by the financial downturn and declining enrollment, the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea is attempting a financial turnaround, aiming to eliminate $41 million of debt and to rejuvenate its depleted endowment fund.
What if all education in Episcopal seminaries was offered for free for one academic year? Just what if?
Presidents must cultivate something like an ascetic practice to do those things that are difficult for them. The study authors say the role requires paying attention to a “discomfort zone.” Those areas that are a challenge and that provide little pleasure are often the ones that need the most attention.
News from Episcopal Divinity School that describes the work they’ve done to turn back debt and increase fundraising.
Annually, 12 post-doctoral scholars from all over the world are awarded $10,000 each for the best doctoral dissertation or first post-doctoral book related to the topic “God and Spirituality.” King was recognized for his book, “Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers.”
I remember the air in the chapel. It was heavy air, full of stained glass light and the comforting residue of the prayers of thousands of students who came before. I breathed in the substance of the holy, communal life that the seminary desired for each student – the life made up of words and bread and wine and water and song and, yes, mistakes.
In particular, I have been watching and listening during this past week as students and alumni visited the campus and simply stood, gazing, in sad homage, at the charred beams where the chapel ceiling once was, open to the sky below the cross that still stands on the front of the chapel.
Somewhat incredibly, some Books of Common Prayer survived the fire, as well as the brass cross behind the altar, the baptismal font, some vestments, and several smaller stained glass windows.
So dwell in our home that we may reflect the Spirit of the Father for whom every family is named. Bind us all into an holy fellowship; make all our worship, work and play witness faithfully to you; so that the Seminary may be a center from which light and life and love shall radiate to the four corners of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen — from the Seminary prayer
The Rev. Lang Lowrey, Interim President of the General Theological Seminary held a web conference today (Friday) describing in more detail the plan restructuring plan announced a week ago.