From the Dean
It was Paddy Cavanaugh (Class of 2023) who spotted a remarkable find at an antique store in Easton, MD. At
VTS magazine
Together we make The Episcopal Church stronger
Together we make The Episcopal Church stronger
By the Rev. J. Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Virginia Theological Seminary
In the past decade, Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), with the encouragement of the Board of Trustees and Dean Ian Markham, has affirmed again and again the importance of VTS pilgrimages. VTS Pilgrimages are part of the Seminary’s current Strategic Plan. The pilgrimages gained prominence because of VTS’ “marking the moment” with its own pilgrimage or journey for 200 years.
Our Historic Bicentenary in 2023 gave us the occasion to remember well. VTS’ own pilgrimage highlights the significance of leaving what we know for what is not known. Our bicentennial was a season of acknowledging our faithfulness as well as accepting our flaws.
Thankfully, VTS has moved from our known, sordid complicity with our country’s original sin of slavery to a new day with the unknowns of what Reparations will be teaching us. We now confess that our institutional wealth was made greater by the sacrifice of enslaved persons who built some of our treasured buildings in the early 19th century. The enslaved persons were not given the opportunity to pass savings or material resources to their ancestors. Reparations are now a very small way for VTS to right a grievous wrong.
In fact, pilgrimages have long been in the DNA of VTS. The inscriptions over the altar window of the 1881 Immanuel Chapel, “Go Ye Into All The World And Preach The Gospel” and the same now over the west door and the baptismal font of the 2015 Immanuel Chapel bear witness to VTS’ calling ever to move out from itself. We have always been about ministry and mission – sending forth graduates to shape The Episcopal Church and to make a difference for good in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
No one treasured this truth about VTS’ mission more than a legendary Professor of Old Testament, the Rev. Murray Lee Newman. Newman, who served as a faculty member from 1955 to 1996, became the strongest advocate for “study tours” to the Holy Land in partnership with St. George’s College in East Jerusalem.
Newman’s “study tours” to the Holy Land have grown and grown. Now VTS regularly takes “study tours” to Israel/Jordan (although these tours are currently on hold because of the current uncertainties); England; France; Turkey and Greece. These “study tours” have become VTS Pilgrimages, sacred journeys which never leave us the same.
Why does VTS continue to encourage pilgrimages? Unknowingly, most likely, VTS is following the wisdom of Mary Oliver whose poem, “The Journey,” gives enduring reasons for leaving home and hearth and finding ourselves living the adventure of travel. The poet begins her 36-line poem by talking about the “voices” in our lives which give mixed signals and even “bad advice.”
For a journey, we leave such familiar voices behind. We walk away, suddenly or “little by little” from the known, even the trusted. The cacophony of home and hearth are heard from a distance. The journey is traveled “late, enough, and a wild night and the road full of broken branches and stones.” Yes, the journey is perilous – whatever the destination.
Oliver’s poem is a conversation with herself, yet somehow universal. The voices of the past cry out: “Mend my life.” But the poet hears a “new voice,” as she journeys. The “new voice” Oliver “slowly recognizes as her own.” The poem, “The Journey,” ends:
“as you stride deeper and deeper
Into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.”
VTS Pilgrimages adds a spiritual dimension to the insights, if not wisdom, of Mary Oliver. We invite pilgrims to leave behind the familiar with its many voices. We set out with the prayer that we will hear a “new voice.” We listen in new ways for what the Lord of our lives will say to us. We pray that we will be found by the One who can truly “mend my life.” We go “deeper and deeper into the world,” as we go deeper and deeper into ourselves.
Each VTS pilgrimage includes holy sites: Jesus’ Empty Tomb at the end of the Via Dolorosa; the Shrine of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral; the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral. The pilgrimages become sacred journeys, as pilgrims discover gradually that what endures from taking a journey is the way the pilgrims with whom we travel become more important than the sites visited.
We often talk of holy sites being “thin places,” a concept rooted in Celtic culture – places where the presence of God is uniquely powerful. We often describe “thin places,” as where “heaven kisses earth.” This phrase is an expression first used by the Puritan theologian, Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680), to describe the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Goodwin said: “Heaven and earth met and kiss one another, namely, God and man.”
On VTS pilgrimages we set out, even pray, that we – the band of pilgrims – will encounter the mystery of the Word made flesh, of God in Jesus Christ. While the holy sites are helpful, ultimately the band of pilgrims themselves always become a “thin place,” a place where we are saved from ourselves; where our lives are mended and healed by the God we know in Jesus Christ – the God we have come to love because God first loved us.
As each VTS pilgrimage comes to the farewells, pilgrims most often find themselves full of gratitude for each other, grateful for the mystery of “thin places,” grateful for the ways God has mended our lives by our sacred journey together.
In 2026 we have three pilgrimages planned:
In 2027 and early 2028 we are planning our last VTS Pilgrimages in this current cycle. The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D, Dean & President of Virginia Theological Seminary and President of The General Theological Seminary, has announced his retirement in 2028 after what will be 20 years of faithful, dedicated service. Later this year, we will announce final pilgrimages with Dean Markham to his beloved England; to France; and to either Israel/Jordan or Turkey. Do not let these great opportunities pass you by.
Risk leaving the familiar; join us on a VTS Pilgrimage for a life-mending journey!
If you would like to find out more or have any questions, we will be hosting a Zoom call on Tuesday, November 4 at 5:30 pm Eastern Time. You can join the call here.
It was Paddy Cavanaugh (Class of 2023) who spotted a remarkable find at an antique store in Easton, MD. At
We were delighted to confer degrees and diplomas on 53 students across our Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, Doctor
The Rev. Jonathan Musser ’17 reflects reflect on the ways VTS’ story has been told over the past 200 years
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary, looks ahead to the challenges the Church
