While our colleagues at VTS are getting ready to mark their Historic Bicentenary this week (and I’m really looking forward to heading down to Alexandria to connect with colleagues and enjoy the party!), here at GTS we’re preparing for our Alumni events on October 24th and 25th. These include the Annual Paddock Lectures, a Festival Choral Evensong to commemorate the 135th anniversary of the Consecration of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd and the Commemoration of Benefactors, an Alumni Reception in Hoffman Refectory, the Alumni Memorial Eucharist and Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Annual Alumni meeting. You can find out more information about the events, here: https://www.gts.edu/gatherings.

It’s going to be an amazing time! To get ready, we’re triple-checking the new live streaming system in the chapel, adding a few long-awaited names to the memorial niches around the altar, designing bulletins, and generally sprucing up the place.

For me, one of the highlights of all this preparation was a conversation that I was able to have with one of this year’s co-distinguished alumni award recipients, The Rev. Dr. Ellen Barrett (‘75). Sr. Helena is a true trailblazer! As the first openly LGBTQ+ individual ordained in the Anglican Communion, she overcame prejudice, misogyny, and discrimination with perseverance and dedication to her vocation. Her witness to the radically inclusive love of God in Christ has profoundly impacted both The Episcopal Church and the Worldwide Anglican Communion. We chatted over Zoom from her home in Glasgow, Scotland to record her greetings to her fellow alumni, which will be shared over lunch after the Alumni Memorial Eucharist on October 25th.

Can’t wait to see you all there!

PS - If you’re an alumnus or alumna from an anniversary year (or from a year that didn’t have an anniversary due to the pandemic), please vest (cassock, surplice, hood, tippet) and process with the faculty at Evensong at 5:30 on the 24th!