Date: January 29, 2025
The start of the semester sermon is now up on our YouTube channel. You can find it here. In the sermon, I explain why we issued the statement in support of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. We were getting various letters, emails, social media posts, and phone calls accusing VTS of educating a marxist woke Bishop who had been disrespectful to the President. Given that our goal is to carefully form human lives in the Christian tradition so that they can bring the Gospel of Christ to this hurting world, I thought it was important to correct the record. Furthermore, given that my read of the Bishop’s sermon was that she had been very careful and utterly respectful, I wanted to ensure that the Seminary made it clear that this is exactly the type of preaching we hope our graduates will deliver.
Senior Vice President Nicky Burridge was responsible for issuing the statement in support of Bishop Budde on social media. By the time I preached, it had been viewed over 200,000 times. Strangely, on Saturday afternoon (January 25), there was a moment when on Facebook, 26,000 people were discussing my post at the same time.
I am grateful to Nicky for all her hard work. It is good to have a message. It is also good to get that message out to others.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary