Great "Dean's Commentary" from Ian Markham today...

From the Very Rev. Dr. Ian Markham's "Dean's Commentary" today...

Friday, March 20, 2009

I am pleased to welcome to campus 35 lay and ordained leaders who are participating in VIA training (Viviendo la Identidad Anglicana) or "Living the Christian Life as Anglicans." VIA is an educational program for Spanish-speaking Episcopalians and is sponsored by VTS in conjunction with the Hispanic Missioners of the Dioceses of Washington, Virginia and Maryland. You can learn more about VIA on their website.

As I walked out of Chapel yesterday morning, I walked into Les Ferguson wearing a hat with a little rotor on top and armed with a bubble making wand and vial. His explanation for his attire and the bubbles was that this was his way of coping with this week of examinations. It was a helpful reminder to me of where we are in the semester cycle.

This has been an exceptionally difficult time for the entire community. And the natural examination stress has added to this difficult time. Since arriving, my practice in exam week is to plead for the community to continue to gather in the Chapel. We bring our stress to God: we do not allow our stress to drive ourselves away from God.

Part of the hard work of formation in this place is this discovery: at our moments of greatest stress (and perhaps when we are most angry and unhappy), we need to find ourselves in the presence of the God who seeks to sustain and grant us the ability to cope. When we least want to pray is when we must pray.

The Very Rev Ian Markham

Dean and President

Recognition and Repentence for the Slave Trade, from the "Dean's Commentary"

10/3/2008
The past is part of the present. And the Bible stresses the connections across generations: sometimes it is an act of memory (for example, the Eucharist) and sometimes an act of judgment. One pervasive sin that permeates our culture is the presumption of the concept of ‘individual’ that can be disentangled from family, community, and the past. An ‘I’ has emerged in our culture that operates with the illusion that is no need to recognize the connections with the past.

So this weekend is an important occasion. Today and tomorrow, at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania there will an act of recognition and repentance for the involvement of the Episcopal Church in the evil trade of slavery. Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori will be the celebrant and preacher.

These two days are implementing the resolution A123 from the General Convention of 2006. The past continues to haunt the present in so many ways. As we reflect on our past, so we should resolve to create a new future. This is our Gospel obligation.

The Very Rev Ian Markham
Dean and President

Citizens of two countriies, ... reflections on Ian Markham's sermon

From the Dean's Commentary today, read it HERE.

7/7/2008
Dr. Timothy F. Sedgwick

Friday we celebrated the 4th of July, beginning with a morning Eucharist. To the musical setting “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius, we sang “This Is My Song” with the words, “This is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine; but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.”

The Dean, the Very Rev. Ian Marham, reminded us in the sermon that we have dual loyalties. Just as we have special obligations to members of our family while also being brothers and sisters in Christ, so we are citizens of particular countries while called to serve all people. The particular and the universal: it’s a matter of “both-and”.

The relationship between the human city and the city of God is complex. The nation is a school of virtue and yet also but a shadow of our heavenly calling, sometimes a Jerusalem, sometimes Babylon. As a daily worshiping community—now in full session with students in our D.Min. programs and MACE program—we cannot escape the particularity of lives. Our worship itself is particular, even as it both signs and is juxtaposed to the mission of God. It was just right to begin the 4th of July with a Eucharist to celebrate the nation’s birthday under the sign of the cross and in the breaking of the bread.

Dr. Timothy F. Sedgwick

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Virginia Theological Seminary