Date: May 29, 2026
October 2026 will be an exciting time for the Center for Anglican Communion Studies and for the entire Virginia Theological Seminary community as we host two important conferences on our campus.
Sometimes it is difficult to know for certain whether the events we plan, sponsor, or host are as effective for the people we want to serve and empower as we hope they will be. So it is a blessing when a part of the Anglican Communion outside of the Episcopal Church asks is they can return to our Seminary because of the great experience they had with us previously. This coming Fall we will welcome back two such groups.
The Anglican Communion Science Commission met here in November 2024. We designed worship and Bible studies appropriate to their work bridging science and theology; we arranged for them to visit the National Institute of Health (NIH) to meet Dr. Francis Collins and to observe scientists doing cutting edge research there; and we held a forum with faculty and students here to engage their current thoughts about increasing the intersection of theological discourse and scientific reasoning in seminary education around the Communion. They were impressed with the quality of that discussion and our strong interest in and support for their work and they asked if they could return to our venue for their next meeting this coming October. Of course, we said yes: we are delighted to support and promote their important work.
We were also thrilled to hear from Archbishop Marinez and Christin Winnischofer, whom we had met in Brazil during our Trinity Wall Street funded Young Leaders course and who had attended about our “Women Mentoring Women” Conference which took place here in February of 2025, that they hoped we would host a similar event in October 2026. It took us half a second to say “yes!” to welcoming more than a dozen women bishops from around the Anglican Communion who want a retreat space to talk to one another, while also increasing their skills in family systems theory and connecting with local women bishops here.
There will be at least some time for formal interaction with the VTS community while these two groups are working here and multiple occasions for offering the hospitality for which we are famous.
Natalie Ward, Hartley Hobson Wensing, and Katherine Grieb