The Trustees of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary today declared that the Episcopal Seminary “is in (a state of) financial crisis that threatens survival of the institution” and has given notice to all faculty that employment will end on June 30, 2009. The school also eliminated nine staff positions. The final date of employment for most of these staff will be May 23 ”“ a week after graduation and the school’s 150th anniversary celebrations.
The decision was the outcome of a special board meeting in which the trustees were presented with recommendations by a committee charged with reviewing the seminary’s finances. In February, the board was informed that income from tuition, fees, and endowment resources would be insufficient to overcome an ongoing deficit of nearly $500,000 per year. The seminary currently has an estimated $2.9 million in accumulated debt — likely to climb to $3.5 million later this year because of transition costs. The board ordered a financial plan that brings expenses in line with revenues.
“This is an especially painful and difficult decision to make and announce,” said the seminary’s dean and president, Gary Hall. “However, it became clear during the past 18 months that the seminary’s endowment and other income sources are not capable of sustaining a traditional residential seminary program.”
“At its heart, Seabury will always be a school in service of the mission of God as proclaimed and enacted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Hall said. “We simply cannot sustain our mission with limited resources and by using a traditional model of ministry education.”
It’s worth remembering that this began as a venture of faith under the good aegis of Bishop Whipple:
http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/whipple/statement_appeal1869.html
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Is this a surprise to anyone given the recent history of the Episcopal church. In Episocpal Life a number of years ago, the editor lamented that ECUSA members were diverting their giving from the national church and giving directly to missionary outreach (read more orthodox ventures). I responded that since the leadership was non-reponsive to the calls for being true to God’s Word, they responded in the only way they would listen, or at least hear — money. Too bad, so sad.
Remember Seabury-Western’s upbeat press release back in February?
Here are some excerpts:
— Seabury’s trustees are focusing on the “enormously creative opportunities facing seminaries today” and the “new ways both of doing and preparing for ministry.”
— “The church very much needs a seminary animated by and organized around a new vision of theological education—one that is centered in a vision of Baptism and its implications for the whole church, one which is flexible and adaptive and collaborative in nature. We are committed to Seabury’s historic and ongoing ministry as a vital center of theological education, reflection, and congregational study. We are enthusiastic about the prospect of doing this in a new and, we hope, more economically feasible and pedagogically innovative way.”
Now the excitement becomes real.
Pray for those who will have dreams tonight of unemployment.
This is astonishing news. Given that the Episcopal Church’s membership is exploding, now that the Inclusive Gospel is firmly in place, and the fact that millions and millions of gays, lesbians and their supporters are storming the gates in an all-out stampede, one can only wonder how on earth it could possibly be that the Flagship New Age All-Inclusive Seminary, situated in one of the Episcopal Church’s most progressive dioceses is closing? It just doesn’t add up.
TEC Kiss of Death Spreads:
Faculty and staff can leave our sintitutions, but institutions remain. (How, we don’t ever find out).
Members of our churches can leave, but parishes remain. (How, we never know).
Dioceses can vote to leave, but the Church goes on without them.
(How, we never know).
So…this Church and its institutions are not made up of people. But somehow we go on without them. ???
“sinstitutions” was a true slip, but perhaps inspired.
“Faculty and staff can leave our sintitutions, but institutions remain”
Just as 815 uses its ensowments to sustain a bloated bureaucracy.
What a terrible tragedy; that the institution got so off course and now is imploding.
They have been wise. Good for them. In spite of the sadness. A hard, but good, decision to make.
No. 1: Say–thanks so much for mentioning one of the most interesting characters in TEC history, Henry Benjamin Whipple, “Straight Tongue.”
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Benjamin_Whipple
If any PhD students are looking for a ready-made dissertation topic, Whipple is your man. He is one of those major figures in Church history about whom very little has been published. The Minnesota Historical Society holds the Whipple Papers. His career was significant not only in its connections with the Episcopal Church but also because of its connections to much of significance in American history.
No 4 – If things keep going at this rate there won’t be any more TEC, and the gays, lesbians, and their supporters will have to join CANA or some other similar group.
Whether the blame or cause for Seabury’s problems fall upon one reason or two or not, this is a situation that stand-alone seminaries of all denominations (conservative ones included) are facing and trying to work through. This is a situation that small, institutions of higher-education are facing, period.
The denomination I grew up in is growing like mad and has had to close bible colleges over the last 30 years. This is a problem that doesn’t fall just on TEC or liberal Christian denominations.
This news fits perfectly well with the notions of those who believe that anything associated with TEC is destined for destruction and who seek vengeance against those they disagree with (and at times hate), but the rational is inconsistent because the same thing is happening in all denominations – conservative and liberal.
Bob G+ has a good point: small schools of all denoms who are without the enormous endowment of, e.g., a Virginia Theological, are hurting and closing in large numbers.
Folks, please, if you value a clergy rigorously prepared to proclaim the Gospel unashamedly and duly and rightly administer the Sacraments in the depth and richness of our Anglican heritage, consider contributions to Nashotah House on a regular basis.