Date: June 16, 2025
This past year I have been privileged to learn the good work of the Office of Multicultural Ministries first-hand as the Associate Dean of Multicultural Ministries. From first contact with new students, faculty and staff in the Introduction to Intercultural Competency Course (ICC), to the various programs and events sponsored and supported by Multicultural Ministries, members of the VTS community have opportunities to learn about the histories, lives, challenges and gifts of the people on campus, in their neighborhoods, and in our world.
In addition to formal programming, Multicultural Ministries supports community members interested in developing projects, academic and communal, that engage issues of culture, race, and ethnicity, both historical and current, that have important implications for ministry. I have enjoyed the questions and conversations with colleagues, students and staff, challenged to improve in some way interactions across lines of difference at work, in the classroom, in papers, in workshops, and in worship. Given the challenges facing our world, this work is critical.
The VTS Reparations Program, the Seminarians of Color Union (SOCU), the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. annual commemoration, along with collaborations with the Chapel Department, Lifelong Learning and the St. Nicholas Center for Faith and Justice and the excellent offerings of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies, provide cocurricular opportunities for learning from communities and organizations working for “liberty and justice for all.”
I am grateful for the work of the Office of Multicultural Ministries that supports the mission of Virginia Theological Seminary, to prepare leaders for God’s mission throughout the world. The diversity of God’s creation invites all of us to commit to, among other things, “the creation of a just society in which the image of God in all people is honored and where the sins of racism and injustice are named, challenged, and ultimately eradicated.”
The Rev. Canon Altagracia Pérez-Bullard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Multicultural Ministries and
Assistant Professor of Practical Theology