In Pictures: Commencement 2022
On May 18, 2022, 22 students were bestowed degrees and certificates during the 200th Commencement at the General Theological Seminary.
The Clement J. Whipple Prize, awarded to a student in any degree program for work that has been accepted for publication, was awarded to John Markowski (top center right).
The Edwin Cromey Prize for Excellence in Liturgical Studies, awarded to an ordination-track member of the graduating class for outstanding skills in liturgy, was awarded to The Rev. Dr. Anne Elizabeth Hartley.
During the Memorial Eucharist Tuesday, an icon honoring The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray was consecrated in the Chapel. A legal scholar, intersectional feminist, author, Episcopal saint and priest, labor organizer, and LGBTQ+ advocate, Pauli Murray was a trailblazer in the defining movements for human rights throughout the 20th century.
As their career took shape, Dr. Murray became an architect in constructing the legal basis for monumental decisions, including Brown vs. Board of Education, the inclusion of women in Title VII, and an extension of rights to LGBTQ+ people based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 1961, John F. Kennedy appointed Murray to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
Murray’s path to ordination - and time at GTS - encountered the same challenges faced in other male-dominated institutions. Murray’s thesis "Black Theology and Feminist Theology: A Comparative View" pushed the boundaries of a seminary and a church not quite ready to grapple with the “interstructuring” of racism, sexism, and economic exploitation. Murray graduated in 1976, and was made a local saint in Winter 2022.
The Very Rev. Kelly Brown Kelly Brown Douglas (center) with The Very Reverend Dr. Michael W. DeLashmutt (left) and The Right Rev. Christopher Wright, (right), Chairman of the Board of Trustees, at the Baccalaureate reception May 17.
The Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas is the Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School and the Bill and Judith Moyers Chair in Theology at Union Theological Seminary. Dean Douglas is a prophetic voice in The Episcopal Church and in contemporary American life. For her contributions as a scholar, theologian, prophetic witness championing the rights of the all to walk in , and a future of the church that affirms the sacred right of all to live , this Seminary is pleased and honored to bestow on the Dean Douglas the degree of Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa.
This past week has been a glorious whirlwind of activity on Chelsea Square! Congratulations to all of our graduates and their families, and on behalf of our faculty staff, receive our gratitude for trusting General to be a part of your spiritual formation. We are excited to hear how God will use this time for the good of the church and our communities.
I feel profoundly grateful to have been called the Acting Dean and President at General Seminary, and I look back on this past week (and this past year) with a sense of awe at what God has accomplished here in such a short period of time. The transitions have not been easy and, as with any period of change, we must hold in tension the sense of sadness that comes with loss and the sense of joy that comes from new creation.
I am eager to see what God has in store for us in the year ahead.
Dean Michael