Each year the seminary slowly begins to awaken from its summer slumber when new student orientation begins in August. This year Southwest welcomed 43 new students in all degree programs to campus. Orientation is a welcome time on campus as faculty, staff and current students get to know the newest members of the Southwest community and they get to know each other.
This year during orientation, Southwest hosted a Back-to-School Eucharist in Christ Chapel. The Rev. Nancy Frausto, Director of the Latinx Studies Program, Lecturer in Multicultural Ministries, and Director of Community Worship, along with students, organized this service to include a blessing of backpacks as well as prayers for faculty, staff, returning students, new students, and families. Southwest’s interim dean and president, the Rt. Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce, preached a sermon about new beginnings.
Frusto shared, “We began the academic year with a beautiful Back-to-School Blessing of the Backpacks and Eucharist, welcoming new and returning students and the wider seminary community. It was especially moving to see so many of our students and their children come forward with their backpacks to receive a blessing for the year ahead. One of the most meaningful parts of the liturgy was the opportunity for the different parts of our community to pray for one another. Returning students offered prayers for our new students; faculty prayed for all our students; and students, in turn, prayed over the faculty. Faculty and students then joined together in prayer for our staff. We also added a special prayer for the family members, children, parents, partners, and friends whose love and support make it possible for our students to be here studying at Seminary of the Southwest. It was an extraordinarily beautiful moment and a reminder that our formation and ministry never happen in isolation. There is always a larger community holding us, supporting us, and praying for us.”
Following Eucharist, everyone joined for Community Night in the dining hall where departments and groups across campus each had a booth with information about their work and dinner was shared for families to enjoy.
“New student orientation was a wonderful introduction to Seminary of the Southwest for our new students,” reflected Beth Jordan, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Services. “One of the highlights of the week was our Back-to-School Blessing followed by a meal and Community Night in Howell Dining Hall. Student groups, faculty and staff, and the Iona Collaborative were represented around the room, giving students an opportunity to meet people from across the seminary and learn more about the ways they can be involved in our community.”
As is tradition the evening before classes began, Southwest hosted a Matriculation evening prayer service in Christ Chapel. Matriculation is among the seminary’s most beloved traditions as it includes each new student signing their name to the same book that hundreds before them have signed. The Academic Dean, the Rev. Benjamin King, Ph.D., preached an inspiring sermon.
Also a tradition at the Matriculation service, Southwest awarded the Charles J. Cook Servant Leadership Award to the Rev. Minerva Skeith, Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. The Cook Award was created in 2009 by the faculty to honor their colleague and Seminary of the Southwest alum Charlie Cook on the occasion of his retirement.
Also announced at Matriculation was the recipient of the inaugural Wimberly-Harrison Prize. Named in honor of the Right Reverend Don Wimberly and the Right Reverend Dena Harrison, this prize is awarded by the Dean and President to support faculty sabbatical research, writing, travel, and related scholarly work. The awardee was announced as Dr. Gustavo Bárcenas, Assistant Professor of Counselor Education. Dr. Bárcenas sabbatical work will center on developing a culturally and spiritually responsive conceptual framework for studying spirituality in Latinx immigrant children in the United States.
