May / June / July 2008 Issue TO THE READER:
This issue of Forward Day by Day features meditations by the deans of the accredited Episcopal seminaries in the United States, eleven authors in all. Each dean was invited to write a block of eight or nine meditations; all eleven deans have contributed to this issue.
Seminaries are training grounds for the church's future priests and pastors, yet apart from voluntary contributions from parishes and individuals, Episcopal seminaries receive no funding from the wider church. Seminary education is expensive, and future clergy often go into deep debt to pay for their education, some liquidating their assets to do so. The General Convention urges each congregation to donate 1 percent of its operating budget to a seminary of its choice, to reduce tuition fees and provide scholarship assistance.
The eleven seminaries vary widely. A couple are large institutions with diverse curricula and several degree programs; others are small and concentrate on a particular kind of priestly formation. Some are in large cities, others in rural areas. They are high church and low, conservative and liberal. Each seminary has a dedicated faculty and staff committed to the future of the church. Learn more about the Episcopal seminaries here.
We bid your prayers for and gifts to the church's seminaries. Suggested prayers for the seminaries appear in the back of this issue.
--RHS
