One of the great/strange things about living in New York is the sheer number of songs that talk about the city. My family and I even have a playlist of “New York” songs on Spotify that we’ll load up when we’re coming back home to the City after a vacation (which include Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York”, Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”, The Beastie Boys’ “Open Letter to New York”, and of course Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning”).

Today we say goodbye to Hybrid MDiv Cohort 1 who have just finished their intensive Liturgy course with Professor Farwell, the H. Boone Porter Chair of Liturgics. Their week followed that of Cohort 2, who took the same course last week. It’s been a full two weeks at General Seminary with common meals, common prayer, rigorous study, and delightful explorations around the City.

As Cohort 1 prepares to leave the Close, and the center of our educational work shifts to their home ministry contexts, I find myself singing a lyric from REM’s ballad “Leaving New York”: “It’s easier to leave than to be left behind…” This sentiment resonates with the carving on the steps of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd from Revelation 22:14, “Blessed are they that enter in through the gates and into the city.”

In this new chapter in General Seminary’s history, we continue to express our Benedictine ethos through a rhythm of welcoming and sending. With each intensive, those of us on the staff and faculty engage in a ministry of hospitality, welcoming each cohort for periods of intensive learning and spiritual formation. As these intensive periods conclude, we send our students back into the world, equipped to continue their formation, education, and training in their respective home ministry settings.

While it is always bittersweet to see them go, I’m filled with a sense of gratitude in knowing they carry with them the spirit of Chelsea Square to parishes all over the country.

Dean Michael