Theological Education Sunday to be January 25
Diocesan Press Service. December 8, 1975 [75427]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Theological Education Sunday in the Episcopal Church has traditionally been designated as the Sunday nearest to the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. In 1976 the observance will fall exactly on this feast, January 25.
On this day the seminaries of the Episcopal Church join in asking congregations throughout the length and breadth of the Church to provide a significant portion of the financial support these institutions require to pursue their work which is necessary for the continued growth and strength of this part of the Anglican Communion.
The Church's seminaries exist as private and independent institutions totally dependent on their separate alumni bodies and other constituencies for the support they must have to maintain their programs of theological education. In January each year these schools unite in a joint appeal to the Church-at-large to acknowledge their service and to offer gifts for their support.
The Episcopal Church is the only major church that makes no budgetary provision for the theological education of those it accepts as candidates for Holy Orders. Not one cent of the national budget of the Church is ear-marked for theological education. What funds each school raises it does on its own and through the tuition fees charged its students.
Each of the 11 seminaries participating in Theological Education Sunday has produced promotional material and offering envelopes which are available upon request.
The seminaries of the Episcopal Church are: Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, New Haven, Conn.; Bexley Hall, a member of the Rochester Center for Theological Studies, Rochester, N. Y.; Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, Calif.; Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass.; Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Tex.; the General Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y.; Nashotah House Theological Seminary, Nashotah, Wis.; School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.; Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill.; Seminario Episcopal del Caribe, Carolina, Puerto Rico; and Virginia Theological Seminary.