Date: January 9, 2024
It is a joy to be here in Austin Texas. Once a year all the Deans of the Episcopal seminaries gather. It is an opportunity to reflect on the state of theological education, to share trends in our respective institutions, and to enjoy some fellowship together. This year, the agenda is supplemented by the presence of a team from Trinity Wall Street, who want to reflect with us on how best we can serve the Episcopal Church.
We are gathering at the Seminary of the Southwest. It is an important place to gather given the announcement of my good friend the Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge that she will conclude her term on June 30, 2024. She will have been dean and president for eleven years. It has been a very successful tenure: SSW now has a Masters of Clinical Mental Health Counseling; the MDiv curriculum has been revised; she has been at the vanguard of the Iona Collaborative; she grew the endowment; and she led the campaign for the Bishop Dena A. Harrison Library and the new Learning Complex.
Along with all this pioneering success, she has been a delightful colleague and confidant. I will miss her presence on the Council of Deans. And I wish her all the best in the next season of her life.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of the The General Theological Seminary