Support Seabury

Dear Friends:

On some days at Seabury Western Seminary I’m struck by how closely our institutional life tracks both the Church’s calendar and the Evanston weather. We’ve passed through a bleak, oppressive winter and are now launched into a season of renewal and rebirth. These are busy days, full of promise, as we work to lead Seabury more deeply into its new life.

I want to update you on our progress and to ask for your help. Seabury depends on its friends, alumni and supportive congregations for encouragement and financial support. We have been through some difficult times recently, but we have looked our problems squarely in the eye, made some difficult choices and begun to create an institution that is better able to adapt to the myriad forces transforming theological education.

The reviews of our performance have been excellent. No less an authority on the American religious scene than Diana Butler Bass has endorsed our vision and praised our efforts. “What a bold move Seabury has made,” she said after a recent lecture in Chicago. “It is now uniquely poised to become the seminary best able to form the women and men who will create and lead the vibrant, thriving communities of faith so crucial in the rapidly changing landscape of the early 21st century.”

Because I believe in Seabury, I came out of retirement, after 22 years as President of DePauw University, to serve as its interim dean and president during this crucial phase of its institutional life. The evidence I see tells me this choice was a good one.

Our Doctorate of Ministry program in Congregational Development, offered in partnership with the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and our ecumenical DMin in Preaching, offered through the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS) are attracting new and highly motivated students. Our Anglican Studies program, which next spring will feature a course on spirituality taught by former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, responds to the needs of students whose preparation for ministry has not taken place in an Episcopal seminary. Our stimulating enrichment programs, which are preparing the lay leaders our Church needs for the 21^st century, are attracting new partners and growing in visibility and numbers.

Also, I am encouraged by conversations with Episcopal bishops in the Midwest and by the enthusiastic response we received at the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes Conference. I was pleased that Dr. James Forbes, pastor emeritus of Riverside Church in New York City, preached at our commencement this May and received a standing ovation. Bishop Jeff Lee will participate in the leadership course I am teaching this June, and Susanne Watson Epting, director of the North American Association for the Diaconate, taught for us for the first time, but not the last, this spring.

We are committed to energetic outreach on behalf of our new vision, and we are speaking in forums from the parish level to the national level. After one of these forums here in Illinois, a parishioner wrote and told me that Seabury reminded him a Phoenix rising from the ashes. We are doing our best to live up to that analogy, with a schedule of teachers and speakers that would be the envy of any seminary in any denomination in the country, a new website, a new level of energy in our development work, and a renewed network of alumni, friends and opinion leaders across the church.

If you’ve been waiting to see if Seabury still deserved your trust, we hope you understand how diligently we are trying to earn it. I hope you will consider supporting the new Seabury—Seabury NEXT—with a financial contribution. You can contribute online using the donate button on this page or by sending a check to Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, 2122 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60201. If you have questions about donating to Seabury, please talk with Ruth Frey, director of continuing education and development, via email or 847-328-9300 ext. 56.

Sincerely,

Robert G. Bottoms

Interim Dean and President