Virginia in January
I’ve recently had the joy of spending several days with our hybrid M.Div. students at Virginia Theological Seminary during their January intensive weeks. Witnessing their enthusiasm in this new environment has been delightful. Students from Cohorts 1 and 2 have been able to study alongside one another, they’ve been learning with the remarkable VTS faculty, and they have shared meals and prayers with the VTS students who are on campus for their January term. The beauty of the 88-acre campus blanketed in fresh snow is a sight to behold, and I’m especially grateful for the clear sidewalks - a feat I imagine is no small task!
I’ll admit it - I initially harbored some skepticism about hosting a GTS intensive at a location other than the Close. My love for NYC, the Close, and the Chapel of the Good Shepherd runs deep, as does my desire to share this incredible space with students, in hopes that they will grow to love it as I do. The Chapel's role in worship has been profoundly formative for me and for many generations before, fostering a sense of place that’s deeply ingrained in our hybrid program. Our Benedictine ethos, characterized by a rhythm of welcome and sending, invites students to the Close for weeklong intensive courses, immersing them in a communal life of worship and work, before sending them back to continue their service and learning in their home ministries.
However, within just a few days of being here in Alexandria, I’ve come to see substantial benefits in holding some of our intensives outside NYC. For one, on the Close, our intensive courses are capped at 16 students - a limit dictated not by theology, but by the number of beds in Dodge, our Seminary Guesthouse. This constraint often prevents the simultaneous hosting of multiple cohorts at Chelsea Square. Although students from different cohorts interact in online classrooms, they rarely meet in person. Offsite intensives, especially in the spacious setting of VTS, enable students from various GTS cohorts to connect in classrooms, refectories, and chapels, allowing the culture, tradition, and ethos of the seminary to be passed along from one group of students to the next.
A second advantage is the opportunity for students to appreciate that there are myriad ways to be formed for ministry. The tendency to view one's own path as the sole or superior method for preparing for service to the Church and the World is all too common. While our allegiance to our alma maters is commendable (and I am grateful for the lasting bonds our alumni have with GTS), in this changing Church and changing world, we recognize that there are diverse paths to ordained vocations. These include local formation, embedded Divinity schools, distributed or hybrid learning, and residential seminaries. Such diversity in formation mirrors the diversity of vocations (and ordinands) God calls into ministry. For our GTS students, experiencing a different context and meeting future colleagues formed in different settings is a vital step toward reinforcing a shared mission across the whole Church.
Lastly, and please forgive a hint of pride, I am thrilled to have our GTS students represent us on the VTS campus. Maybe this is a bit like what past faculty felt when GTS and VTS would play each other in seminary football or basketball games. I think our students are a testament to our colleagues and friends at VTS to the extraordinary caliber of the GTS hybrid MDiv program. As I say to anyone who will listen, in all my years in theological education, I have never encountered a group as sharp, creative, dedicated, and faithful as the members of Cohorts 1 and 2 in the GTS hybrid M.Div program. I am proud to count them as part of our 207-year-old GTS family.
Just as I delight in sharing NYC, the Close, and the Chapel of the Good Shepherd with visitors to GTS, I am excited to share our students with our siblings at VTS. These students fill me with hope - hope for the 60-odd applications for the 16 spots in Cohort 3, but more so, hope for the Church they will invigorate and lead as the next generation of clergy!
Dean Michael
