VIRGINIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Marking the Moments
This is the season for VTS to pause, as we examine our complicated journey so far. There is an exciting and evocative series of events throughout the next year that will help us commemorate the complete story of the past. Our journey as a seminary has been both flawed and faithful. The past is always present. Our goal is a complete history—one that is full and textured.
The culmination of our Historic Bicentenary year will be on October 13 and 14. Save the dates! There will be a concert, an updated discussion about reparations, a special “black tie” gala dinner, family games across The Holy Hill, a morning Eucharist with the 27th and current presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church, The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, and a luncheon. More information will be shared the closer we get!
Bicentenary EventsSeminary Poem
Rev. Malcolm Guite, Ph.D.,
Thanksgiving starts with thanks for mere survival,
Just to have made it through another year
With everyone still breathing. But we share
So much beyond the outer roads we travel;
Our interweavings on a deeper level,
The modes of life embodied souls can share,
The unguessed blessings of our being here,
The warp and weft that no one can unravel.
So I give thanks for our deep coinherence
Inwoven in the web of God’s own grace,
Pulling us through the grave and gate of death.
I thank him for the truth behind appearance,
I thank him for his light in every face,
I thank him for you all, with every breath.
Rev. Malcolm Guite, Ph.D.,
The last two decades have seen an outpouring from the pen of Guite, a Cambridge priest, poet, and rock-and-roller: ten collections of poems; critical works on Samuel Taylor Coleridge and on the intersection between faith, hope, and poetry; With great anticipation Virginia Theological Seminary looks forward to welcoming Malcolm Guite to our campus and to hearing his newly commissioned poems. Perhaps he will inspire us as well to “begin the song exactly where we are.”
Context
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823; and in 2023 we mark a historic moment: 200 years of ministry and mission in the Episcopal Church and in the worldwide Anglican Communion. To “mark the moment” is not to “celebrate” but to remember well and to give thanks.
Learn MoreThe Timeline
Founded in 1823, Virginia Theological Seminary is commemorating our historic bicentenary with a look at our first two centuries. Recognizing the grace as well as the sin, this continuously updated timeline is a terrific resource for the history of not just VTS or The Episcopal Church, but of 200 years of faith in America. Click here.
Learn More