Please join us on this historic journey!
The Bicentennial Campaign will provide the funding and imagination to form the future leaders of our Church. This effort is for our children and their children — for the Church now and for the future Church.
Virginia Theological Seminary
Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) accepts the responsibility of these ageless words from John’s Gospel. In 2023, VTS will celebrate 200 years of “forming human lives to go out into the world and preach the Gospel.” We have been “sowing” in the vineyard for a long time.
The grace of our Bicentennial is that we give thanks for our ministry and mission which we have in the name of Jesus Christ. We are repenting of past sins as an institution. In the present and as we look to the future where God already is, we will seek to serve as faithful stewards, knowing that others will be reaping what we sow.
Yes, ours is a story of sin and grace. We have an outreach fund that includes reparations for our role in the institution of slavery in the United States. At the same time, we honor those “sowers” who have become missionaries, lay leaders, deacons, priests and bishops in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
“Two hundred years is a major landmark. In a time when everything comes and goes, it is good to see an institution going from strength to strength. As VTS prepares for the third century of service, I know that the institution will live ever more fully into the demands and commitment of the Jesus Movement. _I invite friends far and wide to support the Seminary as they mark this anniversary.”
The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry
27th Presiding Bishop, Honorary Campaign Chair
By God’s grace, VTS is ready for its third century of ministry and mission.
We will seek new ways to serve, and we know that the harvest will be full of hope.
Our vision for VTS’ future calls for adaptive innovation in the Episcopal Church and in the Seminary’s residential formation, even as we treasure that which was true about our past. This comprehensive Bicentennial Campaign will help us honor the priorities of the Strategic Plan which has been approved by our Board of Trustees. The resources provided by our Bicentennial Campaign will help us meet the challenges of an ever-changing church and world.
All gifts help VTS to inspire congregations; to support ministries; and to engage a robust, faithful Episcopal Church which is well-equipped to face the new world of a new century.
We invite all who love the Episcopal Church to join us as we mark with gratitude our Bicentennial.
Campaign Prayer
God of all times and seasons:
we give you thanks
for the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
and the faith and commitment of many,
which across the years,
have sustained and strengthened
Virginia Theological Seminary,
and brought us to this moment
of opportunity and challenge.
As we look ahead,
may the Spirit continue to guide and enable us,
through this campaign,
to respond in ways old and new
to the urgency of the Gospel,
and bear witness to the breadth and depth
of your reconciling love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
We are grateful to the Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold III for writing this prayer for our historic Bicentennial Campaign.
Bicentennial Resources
Program
Program
It is the role of Lifelong Learning within VTS to nurture church leaders to be informed theologians, intellectually engaged, articulate, and courageous.
Place
Place
The Seminary’s commitment to residential theological study places the Bishop Payne Library at the heart of our Bicentennial Campaign.
