If many Episcopalians are involved a few proposed long-term lease between Normal Theological Seminary and a startup generally known as the College of Sacred Music, it was not evident in a Zoom dialogue on April 16.
The Very Rev. Dr. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of Virginia Seminary and president of Normal Seminary, hosted the primary of three Zoom classes for alumni and associates of Virginia Seminary, nevertheless it was open to different events.
Seven bishops in higher New York Metropolis have opposed a tentative plan to lease a part of Normal’s underused New York Metropolis campus to the music faculty, which presents a nine-month apprenticeship for future skilled church musicians throughout denominational strains.
In a low-key, conversational session with 15 members, Markham revealed that below a proposed 99-year lease, the music faculty would cowl all of $32 million in deferred upkeep on Normal’s campus, which dates to 1817.
Virginia Theological Seminary, which controls each seminaries, has been in negotiations with the music faculty for a wide range of potential lease preparations, mentioned Nicky Burridge, vp for communications. The music faculty already rents short-term house on the historic Manhattan campus, and its college students carry out Choral Vespers on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in Normal’s Chapel of the Good Shepherd.
On Might 22, the bishops of the Dioceses of New York and Lengthy Island despatched a letter to their clergy opposing a lease. “We are concerned by the lack of full acceptance of the LGBTQ stance of its founders and the lack of transparency in its funding,” the bishops wrote. The letter was signed by Bishop of New York Matthew Heyd, Bishop of Lengthy Island Lawrence Provenzano, and their suffragan and aiding bishops.
Efforts to achieve Heyd and Provenzano had been unsuccessful. Nick Richardson, communications director for the Diocese of New York, mentioned the diocese would don’t have any remark past the written assertion.
The New York Every day Information first reported the bishops’ opposition to the proposed lease. Quoting “multiple sources,” the Every day Information reported that the music faculty is supported by Colin Moran, a New York hedge fund supervisor who has a deep curiosity in selling excellence in choral music.
Morgan leads the board of administrators of First Issues, a widely known common curiosity faith journal based in 1990 by the late Richard John Neuhaus. All through its historical past, First Issues has revealed all kinds of theological reflection, e book opinions, and different commentary, together with by Episcopalians and different Anglicans. It affirms conventional Catholic instructing on marriage and associated points equivalent to abortion.
Anglican and Roman Catholic leaders and parishes have a long-term dedication to sustaining dialogue and ministry with one another.
Moran and College of Sacred Music officers didn’t reply to requests for remark, however Burridge mentioned the college has mentioned “over and over again that they’re going to be inclusive,” including that the New York Metropolis choral music scene is extremely numerous.
Markham reiterated within the Zoom session that the college has dedicated itself to LGBT inclusion for school, college students, and employees.
“I am not worried at all” concerning the faculty’s dedication to inclusion, he mentioned, including that each Normal and Virginia seminaries contemplate such inclusion non-negotiable.
Markham talked about that his preliminary connection to the College of Sacred Music got here by way of Dr. Christopher Wells, previously government director of the Dwelling Church Basis and writer of The Dwelling Church. Wells is now director of unity, religion and order for the Anglican Communion Workplace. He confirmed that he referred Dean Markham by way of electronic mail within the spring of 2023 to “to an old friend of mine, who was a graduate student in theology at Notre Dame.” He then adopted up with electronic mail to Markham in the summertime.
“I am saddened to hear of the concerns raised about all of this, and hope that the New York bishops and VTS/GTS can come to an amicable agreement, mindful of the big tent not only of the Christian Church but of the Anglican Communion, and I hope of the Episcopal Church. Single-issue litmus tests for inter-Christian association and cooperation should be avoided by churches and their leaders, even as they rightly strive to articulate their no-doubt differing doctrines. The communion of the baptized is the most basic, visible assembly of the faithful and needs devoutly to be defended and upheld. Out of our friendships within that communion, interesting and hard conversations can take place. I would think this strikes especially to the heart of the vocation of seminaries and divinity schools, which for Anglicans, like all mainline Christians, have evinced an ecumenical character since at least the 1960s. We really are better together.”
Markham introduced a number of slides through the Zoom session, together with a display screen shot of a publish by the Rev. Dr. April Stace, Normal’s assistant professor of sensible theology and director of contextual ministry, and a harpist.
“This lease agreement would allow us to continue hosting the intensive classes on the Close, and would ensure that the chapel is being used regularly (vespers, etc.),” Stace wrote. It was VERY arduous to discover a accomplice who had sufficient cash to do all of the renovation essential on the campus, and it is a big blessing for us. IF the necessity for straight white males to look as ‘allies’ doesn’t mess it up.”
Normal is the oldest Episcopal seminary in America. Virginia Seminary is the second-oldest and probably the most prosperous, and it primarily acquired Normal in 2022 after it grew to become clear {that a} standalone GTS was financially unsustainable.
The five-acre Normal campus within the Chelsea part is extraordinarily precious, however the worth just isn’t liquid. The red-brick buildings have deferred upkeep wants that the college estimated at greater than $32 million in November 2023. For 2023, Normal had working bills of $7.8 million, towards earnings of $4.3 million.
Normal discontinued its conventional three-year residential mannequin on the finish of the 2023 faculty yr in favor of a hybrid program that’s primarily on-line, with intensive short-term residential visits. “The hybrid M.Div. program has been hugely successful,” Burridge mentioned, with 34 seminarians now working towards a grasp’s of divinity, the one diploma nonetheless being supplied at GTS. She mentioned the present M.Div. class is the most important previously decade, and a few seminarians have mentioned the hybrid program is the one means they might pursue their name to ministry.
Regardless of the potential worth of the prime Manhattan actual property, Virginia Seminary has constantly mentioned it has no intention of promoting the Shut. Plans are to retain using Dodge Corridor, the Keller Library, and the Chapel of the Good Shepherd “in perpetuity,” the November announcement mentioned.
Along with Heyd and Provenzano, the letter of opposition was signed by Bishop Suffragan Allen Shin and Bishop Assistant Mary Glasspool of the Diocese of New York, and Lengthy Island aiding bishops Geralyn Wolf, Daniel Allotey, and R. William Franklin.
Markham mentioned within the Zoom session that he would welcome any different association the bishops want to current, and that he’s conscious of earlier discussions by Normal’s leaders to promote campus buildings as industrial actual property. However, he mentioned, promoting this Oxford-style campus in the course of New York Metropolis would break his coronary heart.
The dioceses of New York and Lengthy Island are monetary supporters of The Dwelling Church.
This story has been corrected to mirror the time of Christopher Wells referring Dean Markham to his pal.
“Well bless their hearts.”
