Date: September 30, 2026
We have been anticipating this day for a week or so. There is a group of student proposing to gather in Bicentennial Hall for a more intentional engagement with the gift of quiet. This is all very good.
In the end we are called to be people of prayer. This means a focused attention on God and invitation to bring our full selves into God’s presence. We bring our concerns, complexities, and hopes to God. Learning how to pray is a fundamental part of Seminary.
You can tell the person who prays often. For most of us our prayer life is a shopping list of names, immediate worries, and almost entirely petitions. For the person who has a relationship with God, it has been learned through countless hours of living in the silence with God. So, please treat this day as the gift it is.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary.