Listen to the Very Rev. James B. Lemler's Sermons
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7 April 2002 | 5 May 2002 | 2 June 2002 | 6 June 2002

The Very Rev. James B. Lemler
Dean and President

James B. Lemler is the Dean and President of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He possesses a passion for the education and development of leaders, a passion evidenced in his own leadership at Seabury, in the work of its Seabury Institute, and in national leadership development organizations including Trustee Leadership Development and the Parish Development Institute. He is one of the major leaders in the Episcopal Church on mission and congregational life. Educated at DePauw University, Oxford University, Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary, and Christian Theological Seminary, Dr. Lemler has served as a consultant and conference leader to numerous congregations, judicatories, and religious and other not-for-profit institutions. He has given leadership in arenas of religion and philanthropy as a founding member of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes and a consultant to various foundations. Prior to his arrival at Seabury in 1998, Dean Lemler served as the Rector of Trinity Church and President of St. Richard’s School in Indianapolis. During his 17 years at Trinity and St. Richard’s he was a leader in ecumenical efforts and urban ministry, including years as the President of Indianapolis’ Church Federation and the founder of the Episcopal Metropolitan Council. In 1998 he was named a “Sagamore of the Wabash” by the Governor of Indiana. Dr. Lemler has written in the areas of leadership, spirituality, mission, and congregational life and development. He has served the Episcopal Church as a six-time deputy to the General Convention, the co-chair of the Standing Commission on the Church in Metropolitan Areas, the chair of the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism, and as a member of the Presiding Bishop’s Task Force on Seminaries, the 20/20 Task Force, and the Task Force on Ethics and the New Genetics. He is married to Sharon Lemler, a Psychiatric Clinical Specialist in Nursing, and they are the parents of three daughters.

Dean’s Message

Seabury is a community of believing, praying, and learning which exists to form and develop leaders for the Church and its mission to the world. Its foundation is the grace and love of God shown to human beings through Jesus Christ our Lord. We meet God in this community of faith as we worship, pray, learn, study, serve, and support each other in our journeys of believing.

Seabury serves the Episcopal Church in many different ways. We prepare lay and ordained leaders in the residential and commuter setting in Evanston through an outstanding variety of programs. The Seabury Institute is extending the seminary’s work in the areas of congregational development and leadership education throughout the life of our Church. The seminary provides an excellent quality of learning for those who are seeking to enter ordained and new lay ministries, and for seasoned leaders as well. It is an exciting time at Seabury-Western.

God has given Seabury many gifts of grace to pursue its call and work of leadership formation:

• A solid foundation of worship and prayer undergirds the entire life and experience of the seminary community in which people are strengthened and shaped for ministry.
• The faculty is a creative, competent and caring group of teachers who focus on the needs and success of those who learn at Seabury, bringing skill and knowledge in their academic areas.
• The community enjoys a rich diversity in its life, representing a wide variety of personal, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds, and philosophical and theological perspectives.
• The Anglican ethos and tradition shape a community of theological solidarity and openness, of welcome and inclusion.
• The Church, theological education institutions, and city of Chicago provide an invigorating learning laboratory, full of new experiences and partnerships in learning.
• The people of the Seabury community are committed, inquiring and growing human beings discovering more about their call to servanthood.
• The Spirit of God is providing Seabury with a creative and new vision for the future of theological education to prepare leaders for the new century.

Seabury forms leaders for the Church in a time of complexity and change. We offer foundational learning and experience in prayer, tradition, the practices of faith, and theological inquiry which will continually strengthen leaders of the Church throughout their ministry. At the same time, we provide an experience of leadership education that encourages flexibility, openness, and the adaptive ability to meet new and unfamiliar challenges. The Church needs leaders who possess the capacity to read the realities around them truthfully and accurately and, then, to respond to those realities faithfully and responsibly. The call of this seminary is to shape and prepare such leadership.

What do you find at Seabury? There is a community of respect and mutuality. There are tremendous resources of learning. You will discover a deep commitment to the mission of the Church and to equipping leaders for that mission. You will find a unique understanding of congregational life and development and their relationship to lay and ordained ministry. You will discover God’s presence in the vitality of prayer, praise, and proclamation within the community. There are many discoveries . . . new ways of forming people for leadership and to discern and utilize their gifts as leaders, growth in faith and commitment to God’s reign and rule, joy in the grace and love of God which we experience together.

We invite you to become a part of this community and to benefit from its life and gifts. God is at work here, in the seminary community and in its individual members. By God’s presence, action, and grace, we are serving the Church and the world in wonderful and hopeful ways. You are invited to join with us in this servanthood.

James B. Lemler
Dean and President
B.A., DePauw University
M.Div., Nashotah House
D.Min., Christian Theological Seminary