Date: January 15, 2026
For the month of January, the Dean’s Commentary will feature text by VTS & GTS faculty members writing about what they are currently teaching, reading, or writing about.
I was fourteen years old when I began a friendship with Phillips Brooks. As a new sophomore at his namesake school, I knew him as an Episcopal bishop worth remembering. He was like a big, comfortable sweater on a cold New England morning.
I was happy to encounter him again as a VTS seminarian in 2000. His bust stood at the entrance of the old library, and a curious plaque hung at the back of the old chapel, signifying a bond between Harvard and VTS. The horrid chapel fire destroyed its spot, but the soiled, stained large bronze tablet rests safely in storage today.
Years later, as Dean Markham’s Advisor for Partnerships, Phillips and I became even closer. Dean Markham asked me to edit a volume on Phillips and to contribute two chapters as part of the VTS’ Historic Bicentenary. I learned that Phillips was an anti-slave advocate both in seminary and at his first churches in Philadelphia. He was an outstanding nineteenth-century alum, even though he was a bit of a Harvard snob.
As a Dean’s Advisor, I have contributed to VTS’s life in various ways. Perhaps most notable is my role as The General Theological Seminary Chaplain, helping GTS and VTS better understand and support one another for the benefit of The Episcopal Church. From my view, our two seminaries are healthy and thriving, despite the challenges they and the wider church face, due to our hope-filled seminarians.
Rev. Robert D. Flanagan, D.Min.
Dean’s Advisory for Partnerships, Virginia Theological Seminary
Chaplain, The General Theological Seminary