Our Transition
The Trustees and the Dean of Seabury have made a major announcement about programs at Seabury. Read the statement from the Trustees and the Dean
Seabury invites your thoughts and feed-back to the news posted on our Transitions page and on Seabury's blog site Charting a New Course.
Blog
Financial crisis hits Seabury
Seminary cuts faculty in dramatic overhaul
Elise Foley
The Daily Northwestern
Issue date: 5/7/08
Frank Yamada was awarded tenure at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary on April 24 after eight years of teaching.
Fifteen minutes later, his job security was taken away.
Faculty at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary to lose jobs
Officials at Evanston Episcopal school insist it is not closing
By Manya A. Brachear | Chicago Tribune reporter
April 25, 2008
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, one of 11 schools in the U.S. dedicated to preparing Episcopal priests, told tenured faculty on Thursday that their jobs would end next year.
Officials at the Evanston seminary insist the school is not closing, but that it is redefining its approach for preparing men and women for priesthood. Earlier this year, the school stopped accepting new candidates and advised first-year students that they should enroll in other seminaries if they wish to earn their degrees from an Episcopal institution.
Seabury-Western gives notice to all faculty, cuts staff
Decision comes in response to 'financial crisis that threatens survival of the institution'
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, April 24, 2008
[Episcopal News Service] Seabury-Western Theological Seminary's trustees told the faculty of the school April 24 that their appointments will end June 30, 2009.
The Evanston, Illinois, school also eliminated nine staff positions, effective for most of them on May 23 -- a week after graduation and the school?s 150th anniversary celebrations.
Seabury Gives Faculty Notice, Cuts Staff
April 24, 2008
EVANSTON, IL The Trustees of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary today declared that the Episcopal Seminary is in (a state of) financial crisis that threatens survival of the institution and has given notice to all faculty that employment will end on June 30, 2009. The school also eliminated nine staff positions. The final date of employment for most of these staff will be May 23, a week after graduation and the school?s 150th anniversary celebrations.
The decision was the outcome of a special board meeting in which the trustees were presented with recommendations by a committee charged with reviewing the seminary?s finances. In February, the board was informed that income from tuition, fees, and endowment resources would be insufficient to overcome an ongoing deficit of nearly $500,000 per year. The seminary currently has an estimated $2.9 million in accumulated debt -- likely to climb to $3.5 million later this year because of transition costs. The board ordered a financial plan that brings expenses in line with revenues.
?This is an especially painful and difficult decision to make and announce,? said the seminary?s dean and president, Gary Hall. ?However, it became clear during the past 18 months that the seminary?s endowment and other income sources are not capable of sustaining a traditional residential seminary program.?
The Context of Theological Education Today
An excerpt from Auburn Theological Seminary
Some have been surprised by the Board of Trustees' recent decisions. A primary factor that has influenced these decisions has been the context of theological education at large and specifically within the Episcopal Church in the USA. The following is an excerpt prepared by the Center for Study of Theological Education at Auburn Theological Seminary. Auburn Report>.
What's Happening to Seabury
March 26, 2008
Q. Is Seabury Closing?
A. No. The Board of Trustees agreed in February that the seminary must bring expenses in line with income. Endowments and gifts can no longer support a traditional three-year residential Master of Divinity program that results in a $35,000 annual loss per student. This year (ending June 30, 2008) expenses are $2.9 million and income from all sources will be approximately $2.4 million. This $500,000 shortfall, coupled with a debt load of $3 million, means the Board must make very difficult choices.
Q. What did the Trustees decide at their February meeting?
A Message from Michael Fincher, M.Div., '06
To Gary Hall, Ruth Meyers, and Elizabeth Butler,
When I first heard about the recent events at Seabury, I was stunned and felt somewhat numb about the whole thing. Admittedly, the news was not completely unexpected, given the indications and financial condition while I was at Seabury. Nonetheless, I was very sad to hear the news. After all, Seabury was my home for three years, and was a very important part of my life. It provided me with some wonderful formation, a very good education, and allowed me to meet some wonderful people who will be dear friends and cherished colleagues for the rest of my life. A great part of who I am today I owe to Seabury. And to think that it may soon be no more (at least in the form that I once knew) is almost unthinkable. I hate the fact that future students may not have the same wonderful experience of a three-year residential MDiv that I enjoyed and continue to cherish.
Many of the communiqués from you all have been comforting. Although, I have to admit that some of the things I have read made me mad. I was particularly furious with the comment of one person quoted in the February 22 dispatch from the seminary. It reads ?WOW!!! This is incredibly shocking yet brimming over with resurrection hope!? I couldn?t help but think, ?How naïve! How Pollyanna! The place may be going down in flames and this person thinks the whole thing is brimming over with hope? Did the disciples, upon witnessing Jesus? crucifixion think ?Wow! Now there hope for resurrection?? No, they were in pain. They were suffering loss. And so are we! So stop trying to make it sound like life is all rosy!!! It?s too early to tell what?s going to happen!?
Such were my initial reactions. But then I remembered something that I learned at Seabury ? from Bonnie Perry?s Advanced Studies in Congregational Leadership class. She was talking about her experience of being sent to All Saints to close the place down. As part of that process, she had to get the few remaining parishioners to realize that All Saints was dying, if not actually dead. Once they realized that they were indeed dying, things changed, and new life began to happen. Resurrection happened. And look at how successful All Saints has become in the past 15 years! The lesson Bonnie taught me was that at times like this, institutions need to be willing to acknowledge death in order to make way for resurrection. And that?s what Seabury has done. You have acknowledged that life as we have known it for 150 years is no longer possible. It is time to die so that Seabury may be resurrected into something new and exciting.
Seminaries Under Stress
by Elizabeth Redden
Inside Higher Ed
March 11, 2008
Of the 11 Episcopal seminaries in the United States, one recently announced it would end its main residential program, another is shutting down one of its campuses, and a third is selling a good portion of its campus. The changes reflect not only each institution?s own financial or enrollment straits but also changes that are coming in Episcopal seminary education, which has historically played a key role in American theological life. Among them are an embrace of distance education and new, more flexible alternatives to the traditional residential seminary model thus far sustained for centuries, and ever-increasing numbers of collaborations involving other seminaries, Episcopal and non, and non-sectarian colleges, as tiny institutions struggle to survive.
Among the developments:
Episcopal Divinity School (EDS), in Cambridge, Mass., sold seven buildings on its eight-acre campus to Lesley University, a non-sectarian institution, for $33.5 million. Under the terms of the sale, announced Thursday, EDS will maintain ownership of 13 buildings. As part of the agreement, Lesley, which has already housed undergraduates on the seminary?s campus under a leasing arrangement for about three years, will now own residence halls and a dining facility on EDS? grounds. The two institutions will share a library.
Seabury-Western outlines course changes for continuing students
by David Skidmore
Diocese of Chicago
March 5, 2008
In the wake of the board of trustees? decision to restructure the seminary?s Master of Divinity program, the planning committee for Seabury-Western Theological Seminary has produced a general outline of courses for continuing students next fall. For the 2008-2009 academic year, the seminary will offer five courses in Anglican history, theology polity and liturgy; a semester course in congregational leadership; two January term courses, one in congregational leadership; and both fall and spring Practice of Ministry courses. Though it is uncertain whether the seminary will offer on campus courses in the 2009-2010 year, Seabury?s dean for academic affairs, the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyes, said that all students enrolled in a nine-month residential degree program who complete their degree requirements in spring 2009 or 2010 will receive a Seabury degree. Meyers also said in her letter to students that she is working on a ?teach-out? agreement with Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary for admitting Seabury students to Garrett classes through either a formal transfer or continuing enrollment at Seabury. Meyers will also be asking a committee of students, faculty and staff for recommendations on changes to Seabury?s worship and community life in light of a smaller student body.
David Skidmore is Canon for Communications for the Diocese of Chicago
2008-2009 Limited Course Schedule Announced
Academic Dean Ruth Meyers Shares Details with Students
February 28, 2008
Dear students,
As the board-faculty planning committee began its work this month, provisions for our continuing students was one of their first concerns. What follows is a kind of baseline, that is, the minimum that we can promise at this time. In 2008-2009, Seabury will offer a limited course schedule, to include at least:
Minnesota Seabury-Western Seminary Trustees Issue Statement
The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota
February 26, 2008
Seminary announces it will eliminate programs, suspend admission
Dr. Barbara Elliott, St. Paul's Church, Duluth, and the Rev. Dr. Michael Hanley, St. Christopher's Church, Roseville, have issued a statement regarding Seabury-Western Theological Seminary's recent decision to make major changes in its academic program and enter into a time of discernment about the future of the seminary. Elliott and Hanley are members of Seabury's Board of Trustees, elected by the Diocese of Minnesota.
On February 20 Seabury-Western announced that the school will stop offering the traditional version of a Master of Divinity degree and would soon develop "a detailed plan for the future operation of Seabury, including a financial plan that brings expenses in line with revenues."
Seabury-Western Charts a Course for Radical Restructuring
Traditional Master of Dinivity Program Ended
by David Skidmore
Diocese of Chicago
February 24, 2008
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary will be charting a new course for theological education as it responds to the economic challenges facing Episcopal seminaries and the changing circumstances of congregationally based ordained ministry.
In a February 20 letter to Episcopal bishops with seminarians enrolled at Seabury-Western in Evanston, Il., seminary dean the Very Rev. Gary Hall said the executive committee of the seminary's board had approved a planning committee's recommendations to end the three-year residential Master of Divinity program, and suspend recruitment and admissions to all of the seminary's degree and certificate programs. The seminary's popular Doctor of Ministry program in congregational development and the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching offered jointly with other ACTS schools, will continue with the present enrollment through the completion of degrees, but will not accept new students for the time being.
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary announces major restructuring, discernment
Chicago-area school to end residential Master of Divinity program, suspend all admissions
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
February 22, 2008
[Episcopal News Service] Officials of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, saying that the seminary "cannot continue to operate as we have in the past," announced February 20 that the school will stop offering the traditional version of a Master of Divinity degree and would soon develop "a detailed plan for the future operation of Seabury, including a financial plan that brings expenses in line with revenues."
The decision by the Board of Trustees came during its regular February meeting, according to a statement posted on the Evanston, Illinois-based seminary's website.
"Like many other Episcopal Church institutions, over the past two decades Seabury has both confronted and thought hard about how it can adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the present moment," the statement said. "We believe that the church does not need Seabury in its present form; there are a number of other schools who do what we have traditionally done as well as we do. But we also believe that the church very much needs a seminary animated by and organized around a new vision of theological education -- one that is centered in a vision of Baptism and its implications for the whole church, one which is flexible and adaptive and collaborative in nature."
Statement from the Trustees and the Dean
A letter from Dean Gary Hall
Evanston, Illinois
February 20, 2008
To: Friends of Seabury
The Board of Trustees of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary spent two days at its regular February meeting in discussion of the immediate opportunities and challenges before the seminary. There are, first, enormously creative opportunities facing seminaries today. Many areas of the church are developing new ways both of doing and preparing for ministry. And multiple church groups continue to call for a new range of educational services from our institutions of theological education: continuing education for clergy, lay education, distance learning, and consulting services for congregations and dioceses.
At the same time, all the seminaries of the Episcopal Church face real economic and missional challenges. The stand-alone residential model developed in the nineteenth century is becoming unsustainable for most of our institutions. Bishops, congregations, and seminarians have fewer resources to allot to the education of seminarians. And the cost of theological education has resulted in an unprecedented level of student debt.
