Renewing Chelsea Sq. ~ Preserving Chelsea Square ~ Fact Sheet: GTS
Fact Sheet: GTS
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The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church
Mission: A leading center for theological education in the Anglican Communion, the Seminary has the primary mission of educating and forming leaders for the Church in a changing world.
Location: The Seminary’s historic residential campus in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood occupies the block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and 20th and 21st Streets. Known as Chelsea Square, the campus is built around a central garden, the Close. Faculty and students live and study as a community and worship together daily in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, at the heart of GTS.
Leadership:
The Rev. Denis Michael O’Pray, Chairman, Board of Trustees
The Very Rev. Ward B. Ewing, Dean and President
Enrollment: Approximately 155 students in all academic programs.
Faculty: 15 full-time faculty, 16 lecturers and adjunct professors, 6 emeritus professors.
Academic Programs: The Seminary offers four degree programs that prepare candidates for lay and ordained ministries (Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, Master of Arts with a concentration in Christian Spirituality, and Certificate in Anglican Studies) and three advanced degree programs (Doctor of Theology in Anglican Studies, Master of Sacred Theology, and Master of Sacred Theology with a concentration in Christian Spirituality).
Library: The Saint Mark’s Library has holdings of more than 250,000 volumes, with special collections that include rare Bibles, 16th-18th century English theology, important editions of patristic texts, and devotional works and sermons from the 15th-20th centuries. Highlights include the Coverdale Bible (1535), the first complete Bible printed in English; a first edition of the Authorized King James Version (1611); and the ordination and consecration certificates of Samuel Seabury, the first American bishop.
Programa Hispano/ Latino en Teología y Pastoral: Among the Episcopal seminaries, GTS offers the only accredited M.Div. program conducted primarily in Spanish, the Programa Hispano/Latino en Teología y Pastoral.
Cross Registration: Through co-operative arrangements, full-time GTS students may register for most elective course offerings at Union Theological Seminary, New York Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Drew University Divinity School, or Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. An arrangement for doctoral students exists with the Columbia University Department of Religion, and arrangements may also be made for study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Drew University.
Outreach: To serve a wide audience of varied Christian traditions--from lay persons who want to explore the spiritual dimensions of their vocations in the world, to parish lay leaders and employees, to priests and bishops-- GTS in 1976 established the Center for Christian Spirituality. In addition to its certificate and degree programs, the Center offers a vibrant summer program, as well as events and lectures throughout the year that are open to the public.
To increase understanding between Christians and Jews, GTS in 1986 established the Center for Jewish-Christian Studies and Relations. The Center’s programs are hosted by GTS, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The new Desmond Tutu Education Center, scheduled to open in 2007, will provide gracious new conference and Outreach guest-room facilities for GTS’s two existing Centers and for two new programs, the Center for Peace and Reconciliation and the Center for Continuing Education.
Community: Field placement work, usually in Episcopal parishes, is Service required of all Master of Divinity students, many of whom serve and learn in social ministries such as the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen. Students preparing for ordination also serve in hospitals and other clinical settings as part of Clinical Pastoral Education. Seminary students operate a shelter for homeless men in co-operation with a nearby church-sponsored screening center and are active in a variety of other volunteer services to the New York community.
The Seminary’s gardens are open to the public most days of the year, and visitors are welcome at daily worship in the Chapel. The Seminary operates a day-care center; regularly makes its facilities available to community groups such as block associations; and each Christmas hosts a caroling event for the neighborhood, culminating in a gathering in the refectory for warm cider, mulled wine, and a reading of "’Twas the night before Christmas."
History: In 1817, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church resolved to establish a seminary for "the whole Church in the United States," with this national school to be located in New York City. In 1821, a Vestryman at Wall Street’s Trinity Church, Jacob Sherred, provided an endowment of $70,000 in his will. Around the same time, another Trinity Church parishioner, Clement Clarke Moore (Professor of Biblical Languages at the Seminary, and the poet of "’Twas the night before Christmas"), offered a tract of 66 lots on his Chelsea estate--"a quiet, rural retreat on the picturesque banks of the Hudson"--as a site for the Seminary. The first students matriculated in 1822. The first Seminary building was erected in 1827.
Architecture: The serene and harmonious Gothic Revival buildings of Chelsea Square were designed by Charles Coolidge Haight (1841-1917), who previously had designed important buildings for Columbia College. His buildings took shape in 1883-1902 and today comprise the oldest extant collegiate quadrangle in New York City. Initiating and directing Haight’s work was the Dean of the Seminary, the Very Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman (1829-1902), who was also a driving force in the building programs of The New-York Historical Society, Trinity School, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
"Leaders for the Church": To support its renovation projects for the historic Chelsea Square buildings, and to provide funds for the creation of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Education Center, GTS in 2001 launched its "Leaders for the Church" strategic plan and capital campaign. The campaign, which has established a goal of $15 million, enjoys the support of Sam Waterston as its Honorary Chair.
