NASHOTAH, WI, May 22, 2008 – The oldest institution of higher education in the State of Wisconsin celebrated its 163rd Commencement, as Nashotah House Theological Seminary conferred 20 earned and 5 honorary degrees on May 22. According to long tradition, Commencement exercises were held at nearby St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy, and included a Solemn High Eucharist celebrated by Dean and President, the Very Rev. Dr. Robert S. Munday.

The Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, Bishop of South Carolina, moved the assembled audience with a stirring Commencement address in which he exhorted graduates to ask the question, “Does this church work?”—will they lead churches that are healthy, faithful to Christ and the Scriptures, and growing through the proclamation of the Gospel?

The Class of 2008 included graduates from dioceses as various as Albany, Central Florida, Fort Worth, Louisiana, Quincy, San Joaquin, South Carolina, Tennessee and Western Lousiana, in addition to one student belonging to the Evangelical Free Church. Sixteen of the graduating seniors received the Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) degree, three received certificates in Anglican Studies; and one received the Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) degree.

Honorary degrees were conferred on two Primates of the Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the West Indies, and the Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya. Commencement speaker Bishop Lawrence also received the Doctor of Divinity degree, along with the Rev. Canon Philip Ursell, former Principal of Pusey House, Oxford. The degree of Doctor of Music was awarded to Sandra Fryling, Director of Music at Blessed Sacrament Church in Placentia, California.

Originally founded by Bishop Jackson Kemper as a mission to the western frontier, Nashotah House has been training priests and ministers in the Anglican tradition since 1842. Nashotah House remains strong in its commitment to a classical theological education, spiritual formation in the Benedictine tradition, and the proclamation of the Gospel to the world in mission.

Nashotah House Hosts Conference on Church Planting

NASHOTAH, WI, [Updated] March 1, 2008 – The Very Rev. Kevin Martin, Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Matthew in Dallas, Texas, and a renowned leader in teaching evangelism and leadership development, and Dr. Tom Nebel, an expert in church planting, were keynote speakers for a two day conference on church planting at Nashotah House Theological Seminary on February 1-2, 2008.

Nashotah House hosted this conference because church planting is a relatively new and vital strategy for carrying out the Great Commission—one which is of particular value and real urgency for Anglicans in the United States. In 1920 the population in the U.S. was about 100 million and there were about 8500 Episcopal parishes. By 2000 the total U.S. population had grown to 280 million, and the total number of Episcopal parishes had declined to roughly 7500. Conference organizers believe that if we are to carry out the Great Commission in the United States, a new commitment to and a bold strategy for church planting is necessary.

Presented by the Jackson Kemper Missionary Society at Nashotah House, the Conference was designed to give clergy and congregational leaders the tools they need to reach the unchurched, to bring the number of parishes in the U.S. in line with the growth of our population, and to give the people in those churches what they need most—Jesus Christ.

Nashotah House begins Doctor of Ministry program

NASHOTAH, WI, June 10, 2007 – Nashotah House is pleased to announce the beginning of a new Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree program. The new program, offered through seminars taught each summer, will complement Nashotah House's existing Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) program, also offered each summer. Both programs provide advanced studies for those already possessing a first master's level degree in an area of ministry.

The Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program is intended for clergy and others in positions of leadership who are seeking a terminal professional degree through advanced studies in specific areas of ministry. The emphasis in this program is on developing and improving one’s skills in congregational and ministerial leadership. Major areas of concentration will be Biblical Exposition (combining biblical studies and preaching), Liturgy and Worship, Spirituality, and Congregational Development.

The Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) is an academic master’s degree, intended to give the student an opportunity for more in-depth study in areas of theological studies than is possible at the M.Div. level. This program provides opportunities for research and writing, and may serve as preparation for further graduate study. Courses in this program will be drawn from the areas of Anglican Studies, Church History, Theology, Spirituality, and Liturgy.

Seminars, many of which will be common to the two programs, are taught by Nashotah House faculty and visiting professors. Participants in both programs are included in the daily round of prayer and Eucharist in the seminary chapel and share in the daily life of the community.

Commenting on the new program, Nashotah House Dean and President, the Very Rev. Robert S. Munday, said, "This program gives us an opportunity to offer advanced education to clergy and other ministry professionals in areas for which Nashotah House is famous—namely liturgy and spirituality—and to offer important training that will renew clergy in their ministries through a better understanding of biblical preaching and congregational development."

Registrations are currently being accepted for both the Doctor of Ministry and Master of Sacred Theology program. The first session in both programs begins July 9, 2007. Advance registration is required.

Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical Faculties Agree on Mission, Future Collaboration

NASHOTAH, WI, October 23, 2007 – After two days of worship, dialogue and brainstorming, the faculties of Nashotah House Theological Seminary and Trinity School for Ministry, meeting on the Nashotah House campus this week, announced today their commitment to partner together in common witness to a biblically faithful, traditional Anglicanism, and to welcome opportunities to join in common ministry as they emerge.

“While each seminary has its own unique character and ethos, we are united in our core theological convictions,” said the Very Rev. Robert S. Munday, Dean and President of Nashotah House. “Above all, we are united in our commitment to training biblically faithful leaders for the Church, and in our desire to support a renewed orthodoxy within North American Anglicanism today. These past two days of fellowship have only strengthened those shared commitments.”

“We each belong to our own tradition,” said the Right Rev. John Rodgers, Dean and President of Trinity School for Ministry, which is located near Pittsburgh, PA, “and we each need to be faithful to our own tradition. But it’s growing increasingly clear that the fullness of our faith and our tradition is realized when we come together. We rejoice in each other’s encouragement. And we need to be a caution to each other. We want the diversity and the fellowship of both traditions sharing the same table.”

“These past two days have been a joy for all of us,” said the Rev. Dr. Grant LeMarquand, Trinity’s Academic Dean. “Sharing our own stories, sharing the Eucharist, and considering the needs of the whole Church—this fellowship heartens our hope, our confidence in the future of God’s mission in North America.”

“In the current state of the Episcopal Church, the old disputes between our traditions pale in significance when measured against our common devotion to the great tradition of the Christian faith,” remarked the Rev. Martha Giltinan, Trinity’s Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology. “Both schools are asking themselves what the future of Anglicanism is going to look like. And the return to a biblically faithful, traditional Anglicanism isn’t just about our Bishops coming to agreement. It involves the whole Church--including its organs of theological education.”

The two faculties are contemplating a wide variety of possibilities for future collaboration, including sharing expertise in creating and growing new degree programs, and the mutual stimulation each faculty can provide the other in terms of academic scholarship. “We recognize that each school, because of its particular emphases, teaches subjects that the other doesn’t,” said Bishop Rodgers, “and it’s easy to see how students could profit from being able to take advantage of what both seminaries have to offer.”

The 22 faculty members of both schools will meet again in the Autumn of 2008, on the campus of Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA, to continue their discussion.

On-line Education Program Enjoys Growing Enrollment

NASHOTAH, Wis., Oct. 16, 2007 – The Association of Theological Schools announced in June that it has fully approved Nashotah House’s Master of Ministry Degree (M.A. Min.) program, vaulting Wisconsin’s oldest institution of higher learning to the cutting edge of theological education in the United States today. The Distance Education has been running in pilot mode since July 2006, and so far 42 students have participated in the courses.

The M.A. in Ministry program is designed for those who cannot afford or are not called to relocate for a two- or three-year residential theological degree program, but who seek a theologically rigorous preparation for ordained ministry or other leadership in the Church.

“Distance Learning is the coming thing in theological education,” Dean Robert Munday says, “but Nashotah House’s program is distinguished by at least two things. First, we are offering our distance students not just a handful of electives, but the core curriculum of a robust theological education. Second, our program includes a week of intensive on-campus study once each quarter, which gives our Distance Education students a real experience of the daily worship, community life and formation for which the House is famed.”

Credits earned in the M.A. in Ministry program are transferable to an M.Div. program.

For more information about these programs, and others, contact Director of Admissions Dr. Carol Klukas at 262.646.6547 or admissions@nashotah.edu.