Toward a Vision for The Future of The Episcopal Divinity School
Historic Context
Throughout our history as The Episcopal Divinity School in Philadelphia, The Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge and the The Episcopal Divinity in Cambridge and then at Union in New York City, we were an educational institution located within the fabric of treasured buildings. The cost of maintaining these buildings as part of the cost of theological formation has become unsustainable. By some estimates the cost per student can be as much as $90,000 per year. A disproportionate amount of that cost is in the bricks and mortar and not in the formation and education.
The sudden and catastrophic onset of the COVID epidemic taught us that it was not only possible to function without bricks and mortar, it was necessary. Other colleges and enterprises have learned the same lesson. Leslie College has now placed the buildings it brought from us in Cambridge on sale. It seems they too found the cost of these buildings prohibitive.
Demographically we remain a predominantly white wealthy, upper middle and middle class institution while our church and the communities in which we serve are rapidly changing. We are called to serve a much more diverse and inclusive demographic. Without regard to race, gender identity, class, ethnicity, language or nationality (or any other human category we humans can invent), we need to be a faith community that values all without systemic bias.
The demographic fact is that we are a product of white middle and upper class white privilege. If we continue along this track then we are perpetuating structural racism within the institutional enterprise of theological formation.
We cannot rectify this situation unless we do so systemically and intentionally.
Historic Opportunity
Many business enterprises such as Amazon have taught us that we can jettison bricks and mortar and become more nimble at redesigning and reimagining the theological enterprise. For the first time in our history we are free from the institutional boundaries of the overhead costs of many institutions. We have no buildings to pay for. We have very little overhead. We have an endowment of $80,000,000+ to provide for the theological enterprise. We are as free and as creative as our imagination will allow to be.
For instance, imagine a theological enterprise where the cost of formation and education would be just that. We no longer operate under the constraint of the costs of bricks and mortar and other overhead. We are free to offer a theological education in which the cost is for education and education alone.
Nor are we constrained by geography. We need not require folks to come to a particular place for three years to earn an MDiv for instance. Nor do we need to have laity attend classes in a particular place for theological formation. Using the EFM model of education from Sewanee various satellite gatherings throughout the United States and elsewhere for that matter can gather in person or via Zoom to engage in theological formation.
Purpose Statement
The School we seek to establish will exist to incarnate the struggle for Justice
1. Based on the systemic dismantling of racism and white supremacy.
2. Eliminating bias based on gender, sexual orientation and identity
3. Eliminating bias based Class and economic status, language, ethnicity and nationality
4. A renewed commitment to the care and stewardship of our God’s Creation through Environmental advocacy and service.
Academics
All members of the church are ministers. Most seminaries have effective programs like Sewanee with Education for Ministry. This program has taken root especially in the Diocese of Massachusetts. An effective and articulate laity is essential for the church to carry out our mission.
Ordination Track: Before we became privileged white folks with sufficient wealth to build schools with bricks and mortar we were like plumbers and electricians. We learned our trade through apprenticeship programs. I imagine Bishops might assign what we used to call “postulants” to clergy in the diocese as approved by Standing Committees and Commissions on Ministry. Note: God’s call does not always conform to formal diocesan structures. Part of our responsibility as a school is to discern God’s call with those seeking to respond faithfully. The Scripture is full of examples in which human discernment is not always congruent with God’s. A good school will be watchful for the God’s activity outside of human structures.
Another example of effective ministry formation is the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry, “theological education for all people”
https://www.bishopkemperschool.org/
Faculty:
The faculty be a hybrid collaboration of full time and part-time academics in various settings
We will probably need a full time base staff of Dean and support staff.
We will likely recruit Adjunct faculty. The church has many brilliant academics working in various settings throughout the church.
Faculty & Student Body:
Under the old model of education the faculty and student body were required to located geographically in one place composed of bricks and mortar. For students a professional MDiv degree required a three year period of study. The demographics of this model predisposed EDS to be predominantly white and upper middle class. Likewise the cost of providing a full time faculty in this model is prohibitively expensive.
What if we dispense with the requirement of sustaining ourselves with the bricks and mortar. Perhaps a hybrid model for education could permit more direct and individual relational learning in which a student and a faculty member could form a more direct relationship. “Classwork” could be via Zoom. Some arrangement could be made to have face to face contact throughout an academic career in a way that would be more sustainable financially both for the institution and the student.
Accreditation
EDS at Union is still listed by the American Association of Theological Schools as fully accredited.
How we provide for ongoing Accreditation has yet to be determined.
We are not the only Theological school reimagining the enterprise of Theological Education and Formation.
I imagine an ongoing conversation with the American Association of Theological Schools to determine what accreditation might look like under new models that are emerging
Courses of Study
I'd like to leave this to brighter minds than mine. One of the purposes for our year of listening is to imagine, dream and be creative. That's where all of you fine folks come in. Please feel free to speak as our EDS leadership folk listen.
Board of Trustees
It might be helpful to the wider support and investment in the Theological enterprise if The Board of Trustees would issue an Annual Report to all Stakeholders; including Faculty, Students, and Alumni, congregations and dioceses who support the school.
To maintain a high degree of confidence and trust candor and transparency are necessary
Election of Trustees: Stakeholders shall have an opportunity to nominate and participate in the election of trustees much in the same way as stock holders in a corporation
Scholarship Funds
Among the funds we may seek to establish might be as follows
The Trustees Fund?
The Alumi Fund?
The Jonathan Daniels Fund?
Admissions
Lots of thought needs to go into this. Again we need to overcome our biases as a predominantly white middle class/upper middle class demographic. We need to recruit folks into ministry who reflect the fullness of our human diversity.
Google Workspace for Education offers a technology that can be used very effectively for our purposes.
Each student needs access to high speed internet and a Google Chromebook at the very minimum.
Summary
The above represents a brainstorming of opportunities of how we might about theological education and formation as we build toward a new future.
