Teaching: Episcopal seminaries prepare for graduation ceremonies
Episcopal News Service. May 15, 2007 [051507-01]
The 11 accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church are set to confer graduate and honorary degrees at commencement services during May and June.
They are:
- Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut
- Bexley Hall Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and Rochester, New York
- Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California
- Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas
- General Theological Seminary in New York City
- Nashotah House in Nashotah, Wisconsin
- Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois
- Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania
- University of the South, School of Theology in Sewanee, Tennessee
- Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia
A compilation of upcoming graduation services with commencement speakers follows.
The University of the South and Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry held commencement ceremonies on May 11 and 12 respectively. Commencement exercises for Rochester, New York graduates of Bexley Hall were held May 12.
May 15
The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preach at the seminary’s May 15 commencement ceremony.
The 10 a.m. service will be held at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church and will mark the first time that Jefferts Schori, as presiding bishop, will preach a commencement sermon and receive an honorary degree from an Episcopal seminary.
May 16
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, New York City
The New York seminary’s 185th commencement exercises will begin at 11 a.m. Fifty-five graduates will receive degrees while five others -- Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer; the Rt. Rev. Dr. B. Satyanandam Devamani; the Rev. Prof. Peter J. Gomes; Phoebe Wetzel Griswold; and Archbishop Michael Peers -- will receive honorary doctorates. In addition, the Rt. Rev. G.P. Mellick Belshaw, former Bishop of New Jersey, will receive the Clement Clarke Moore Medal.
The Seminary's annual Baccalaureate Service will take place on May 15 at 5:30 p.m. with Gomes preaching.
May 17
Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia
The Rev. Martha J. Horne, the seminary’s dean and president will serve as commencement speaker at the 10 a.m. ceremony.
May 17
Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, will deliver the commencement address at the Cambridge, Massachusetts seminary’s 2 p.m. service.
Twenty-one graduate and four honorary degrees are set to be conferred. EDS will confer honorary degrees on Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy secretary general of the Anglican Communion; Catherine Hoffman, director of the Cambridge Peace Commission, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Bishop James Kelsey of Northern Michigan; and Ndungane.
May 18
Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, California
The Berkeley, California seminary will confer 44 degrees during its 10:30 a.m. commencement service and award honorary degrees to former presiding bishop, the Rt. Rev. Frank Griswold; Canon Holly McAlpen, missioner of the Episcopal Diocese of California; recently retired California Bishop Bill Swing; and the Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara, the Episcopal Church's director of ethnic congregational development and Asian American missioner.
May 24
Nashotah House, Nashotah, Wisconsin
Nashotah House will confer 29 graduate and six honorary degrees at its 10 a.m. commencement service. The address will be delivered by Bishop Coadjutor Dabney T. Smith of the Diocese of Southwest Florida.
May 26
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, New Haven, Connecticut
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale will confer 20 graduate degrees at its 9 a.m. commencement ceremony.
June 1
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preach the sermon and receive a Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris causa, at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary's 149th commencement ceremony.
In addition to Jefferts Schori, the seminary will grant honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees, honoris causa, to Bishop Todd A. McGregor of Toliara in southwestern Madagascar, and Bishop John Elswood Privett of the Diocese of Kootenay, Canada. Both McGregor and Privett are Seabury alumni.
Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, and Newland F. Smith, III, Seabury's retiring librarian of 43 years and anti-racism activist, will receive Doctor of Canon Law degrees, honoris causa.
June 2
Bexley Hall Seminary at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio
Commencement for Columbus graduates of Bexley Hall will begin at 2 p.m. in Mees Hall Auditorium at Capital University.
Five Episcopal students will receive their Master of Divinity degree and two Episcopal and one Lutheran student will earn a Certificate of Anglican Studies. The Lutheran student will also receive a Master of Theological Studies from Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
The commencement speaker will be the Rev. Marcus C. Lohrmann, Bishop of the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the ELCA. Preaching will be Dr. Donald L. Huber, academic dean and professor of Church History at Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Commencement exercises for Rochester, New York graduates of the seminary were held May 12.