Nashotah House Theological Seminary recently received a $3.5 million gift from the Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ.
The gift, which was presented to the Episcopal seminary this week, endows a professorship in ascetical theology and monastic studies and an annual international conference on religious life and Anglicanism.
When the gift was pledged in November 2016, it was the largest commitment received in the history of the seminary and its first endowed professorship.
This gift is a part of the school’s 175th Anniversary Transformational Gift Initiative, which has raised $7.25 million to date.
Founded in 1842, Nashotah House is the oldest degree-granting institution of higher education in the state and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in January.
The Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ was founded in 1968 by priest and Benedictine monk the Very Rev. Dom Cornelis deRijk with Reverend Canon Lewis Long in Phoenix, Arizona. The late deRijk received his master of divinity from Nashotah House in 1976.
“This generous gift-investment will honor the order’s legacy of service, keeping it alive in-perpetuity,” said the Very Rev. Steven Peay, dean and president of Nashotah House. “It will insure that, for generations to come, house seminarians will benefit from their exposure to the great church leaders and mentors who will occupy the professorship and present at the annual international conference.”
