On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, the community of Seminary of the Southwest gathered to honor the vision and legacy of its founder, the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines. The annual John Hines Day celebration began with a Eucharist in Christ Chapel and continued with a community luncheon in Howell Dining Hall, where students, faculty, staff, trustees, and friends reflected on the seminary’s enduring mission and the example set by its founder.
Founded in 1952 by Bishop Hines—then the fourth Bishop of Texas and later Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (1965–1974)—Seminary of the Southwest was envisioned as a seminary “for the whole church,” a place where theological education would engage the realities of culture, social change, and human need. During his tenure as bishop and national church leader, Hines championed liturgical renewal, civil rights, and the inclusion of women and people of color in leadership. His prophetic insistence that the Church must stand “where the action is” placed him at the forefront of social justice movements in the 1960s and 1970s.
This year’s preacher, the Rev. Jemonde Taylor, rector of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a member of the Southwest Board of Trustees, offered a sermon that drew on Hines’s courage and conviction, reminding listeners that faithfulness often means risking comfort for the sake of truth. The Rt. Rev. Kathryn M. Ryan, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Texas, presided at the service. Among those in attendance were members of the Board of Trustees, several members of the John Hines Legacy Society, and Kenneth Kesselus, author of John E. Hines: Granite on Fire, the definitive biography of the seminary’s founder.
Watch the Rev. Jemonde Taylor’s sermon here.
At the luncheon that followed, attendees were encouraged to sit with people they did not already know, fostering the spirit of community and shared purpose that Bishop Hines championed. Each table included cards featuring highlights from Hines’s life and ministry and questions inviting reflection on how his vision continues to guide Seminary of the Southwest today.
Bishop Hines’s legacy lives on not only in the students and graduates of Southwest, but also through those who choose to sustain his vision through legacy giving. Members of the John Hines Legacy Society ensure that the seminary remains a place of formation, scholarship, and service for generations to come. Their planned gifts strengthen the endowment, expand scholarship support, and sustain the mission Bishop Hines set forth more than seventy years ago—to form leaders for “the whole church” in a changing world.
Want to learn more about the John Hines Legacy Society and how to make a legacy gift? Contact April Kerwin, Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving at 512.439.0326 or [email protected]
