Date: November 1, 2021
Media Contact: Curtis Prather
Tel: (703) 461-1782
Email: cprather@vts.edu
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), and the Rev. Canon Hilda K. Kabia, Principal of Msalato Theological College in Dodoma, Tanzania, are pleased to announce the renewal of their institutions’ eleven-year-old partnership. The continuing agreement between the theological colleges furthers their commitment for three years through mid-2024.
“Virginia Theological Seminary is grateful to God for our relationships across the Anglican Communion,” reflected Dean Markham. “In truth, we cannot thrive without them. This partnership with Msalato Theological College remains very significant to us, as is our commitment to engagement and relationship across the Anglican Communion.”
Since 2010, the two institutions have enjoyed faculty, staff, and student exchanges and have agreed once more in this renewed agreement to hold one another in corporate prayer; to identify opportunities for faculty and students to experience worship and study in each location; and to jointly host an annual theological conference for the clergy of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, one of the largest dioceses in the Anglican Communion.
Due to the pandemic, this year’s clergy conference had to be postponed but as keynote speaker Dean Ian Markham recorded his lectures on the conference themes of evangelism and fiscal sustainability, the College will use them in public lectures, classes, and short courses. Despite the pandemic, Adam Lees ’22, an MA student at VTS, was able to visit Dodoma in August 2021 for a cross-cultural education program, to learn from the ministry and leadership in this important diocese and theological college. Lees traveled within the diocese with Bishop Dickson Chilongani witnessing baptisms and visited with students and leaders at the college with Principal Hilda Kabia. Reflecting on the significance of the partnership, Principal Kabia said: “I view this partnership as a special gift from God himself to our institutions for his own purpose and for his own glory and honor.”
The relationship has included many events with tremendous, shared benefits, including the 2014 Christian-Muslim conference for faith leaders from Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania, hosted by the two institutions; a partnership in a Trinity Church, Wall Street-funded conference on peacebuilding in Jerusalem in 2019 for leaders from Israel/Palestine, the United States, Liberia, and Tanzania; and numerous visits between the institutions resulting in the deepening of scholarly and ministerial projects.
The agreement between the two institutions is managed at VTS by the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS), led by the Rev. Katherine Grieb, Ph.D. ’83, the newly installed director. “Msalato Theological College is a blessing to Virginia Theological Seminary and to the Anglican Communion as a whole,” reflects Dr. Grieb. “Clearly the Holy Spirit is working to bring us all together and this work is a great joy to all of us.”
CACS coordinates the Seminary’s international connections, partnerships, and cross-cultural education programs, fulfilling the Seminary’s vision and mission as a place of formation for the Church locally, nationally, and internationally.
For more information on Msalato Theological College, Dodoma, Tanzania, visit www.msalato.com.
For information on the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at VTS, visit www.vts.edu/anglican.
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ABOUT VTS
Founded in 1823 as a beacon of hope in a country new and finding its way, Virginia Theological Seminary has led the way in forming leaders of the Episcopal Church, including the Most Rev. John E. Hines (VTS 1933, D.D. 1946), former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; the Rt. Rev. John T. Walker (VTS 1954, D.D. 1978), the first African-American bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington; and theologian, author and lay preacher Ms. Verna J. Dozier (VTS D.D. 1978). Serving the worldwide Anglican Communion, Virginia Theological Seminary educates approximately 25% of those being ordained who received residential theological education. Visit us online: www.vts.edu.