Date: April 1, 2025
Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) has conferred the Dean’s Cross for Servant Leadership on Richard Fennell for being an accomplished artist who has helped the Seminary tell its story. The Dean’s Cross is the highest honor the Seminary confers.
It was awarded to Fennell by The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of VTS, and David H. Charton, Ed.D., chair of the Board of Trustees of VTS, on Monday, March 31, 2025, during a choral Evensong.
Fennell is a distinguished American artist who has had countless exhibitions of both his portraits and landscapes. He is well-known for his landscapes, particularly ones depicting North Carolina, which use a palette of rich colors and a highly developed brush technique to create paintings that are “personal, light-filled and lush.”
Virginia Theological Seminary has five of Fennell’s portraits. He painted The Right Reverend Peter James Lee, Diocesan Bishop of Virginia (1985-2009), upon his retirement as Chair of the Board of Trustees, members of faculty The Reverend Lloyd Alexander “Tony” Lewis, Jr., Ph.D., The Reverend Charles Price and The Reverend James Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., and the ninth Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary, The Very Reverend Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
The citation read: “We honor you in part this evening, because so much of your art tells our story as a Seminary. With the artist’s eye, you have helped us to give thanks and to remember well. You have created works of art which are timeless. You are a leader in the professional life you have lived humbly and faithfully. Without fanfare you have had a consequential life, indeed ministry, serving the common good and creating art which will endure from generation to generation.”
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of VTS, said: “At Virginia Theological Seminary we believe in the importance of the arts. Richard Fennell is one of America’s most distinguished painters of landscapes and portraits. We are delighted that he accepted this honor from us. We are grateful for his willingness to use his gifts to capture the essence of a range of people at the Seminary.”
Established in 2008, the Dean’s Cross recognizes outstanding leaders who embody the baptismal vows to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. Recipients are selected annually by the Seminary’s dean and president, in consultation with the chair of the board. They receive a certificate and a handmade silver cross, modeled on the cross that stood on the steeple of the Seminary’s 1881 Chapel.
Previous recipients of the Dean’s Cross include former First Lady Barbara Bush, poet and novelist Wendell Berry, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham.
Notes to editors:
For media enquiries, please contact Nicky Burridge, Senior Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at VTS.
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Photo caption: Richard Fennell (center) with The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of VTS, (left), and David H. Charton, Ed.D., chair of the Board of Trustees of VTS (right).
About Virginia Theological Seminary:
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823 and has a long tradition of shaping faithful women and men, lay and ordained, for leadership in The Episcopal Church and beyond. It is the strongest seminary in the Anglican Communion and provides more than 25 percent of the clergy of The Episcopal Church.