Date: April 30, 2026
Tonight at 8pm, we look forward with joy to celebrating the work of our Masters students who have written a Thesis or Summative Capstone Project this academic year. After many months in conversation with Advisors, Readers, Librarians, Writing Coaches, family and friends the students will now have an opportunity to share their work with the VTS Community.
Every Thesis and Summative Capstone Project is a process of dedication, resilience, and growth.
From the creation of a proposal sent for approval to the Masters Committee, to the meticulous work of research, writing and revision, these pieces represent a serious undertaking. To focus, to persevere and to produce a Thesis or Summative Capstone Project is indeed admirable. I am conscious of the determined effort made by our students and by those who have guided them across the finish line.
A range of fascinating, exciting and creative subjects have been addressed this year:
Babel and the Broken Word: A Theological Anthropology of Communication and Media; Between Symbolism and Survival: Exploring the Evolution of Gazelle Metaphor in Ancient Near Eastern Literature and its Environmental Echoes; Discerning the Missio Dei: Dismantling Reductionism through Missional Hermeneutics; Ecstatic, A Play Inspired by The Book of Margery Kempe; From Second-Class Citizenship to Ecclesial Recognition: Lay Vocational Ministry and the Emergence of a New Order in the Church; “I loved the Church for Christ made visible”: Sacramental Ecclesiology and the Doctrine of the Invisible Church Explored Through the Witness of Dorothy Day; It’s About Time; Relationship Now: A Practical and Theological Call to Racial Reconciliation; Sacrificial Desire: Probing the Relationship Between Eros and Sacrifice in the Holy Eucharist and Who Speaks For Inclusion: A Phenomenological Research Study of Virginia Theological Seminary, Examining Inclusion/Exclusion, Student Identity, and Belonging.
I warmly invite you to join with me in recognizing their achievement as we hear the student presentations and celebrate together in Addison 101.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and President of The General Theological SeminaryÂ