Seminary of the Southwest is excited to announce that the Rev. Madeline Hawley has accepted the position of Director of Field Education and Lecturer in Pastoral Theology. Her her hire was approved unanimously at by the Seminary of the Southwest Board of Trustees at their May, 2024 meeting.
“I am very excited about the hire of Rev. Hawley for this position,” said Dr. Scott Bader-Saye, academic dean and dean and President-elect. “She served this past year as our interim director of field education and has already shown strengths for teaching and administration. She is an alumna of Southwest, having received her MDiv here in 2015, and as such she brings knowledge of and commitment to our mission and ethos. Her substantial pastoral experience will serve her well. She has served here in Austin as curate at St. James and as rector at St. Christopher’s. Most recently, she has served as assisting priest at St. Mark’s in San Marcos. Madeline has experience in multicultural ministry and speaks Spanish fluently. She will contribute to our bilingual liturgies and will help our students prepare for ministry with diverse populations. Her passion and gifts for the academic life were on display during her time here as a student, and she will be pursuing a DMin to further develop her research and scholarship. I look forward to all the ways Madeline will impact our students and strengthen our program.”
“Southwest has played a major role in my life, and I am both humbled and overjoyed to be returning to the community as a faculty member,” said the Rev. Hawley. “My experience in the parish has taught me that community is a precious thing. The students, faculty, and staff at Southwest are what make this community a transformative place. My faculty colleagues are excellent theologians and stellar human beings, and I look forward to learning from them as I shift my vocation from the parish to the academy. But the students really make Southwest special. This past year I have been awed by their thoughtfulness and theological imaginations. They make me hopeful for the future of the church, and I look forward to equipping these future leaders for their work in pastoral ministry.”
The Rev. Hawley is a committed pastor, teacher, and native Austinite. She brings deep and authentic roots to the local convocation critical to the success of Southwest’s robust field education program. She grew up at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, and locally she has served as the Rector of St. Christopher’s, as a priest at St. James’, and as a seminarian at Calvary Episcopal in Bastrop. She has served as the interim Director of Field Education for the past year. In that role she has focused on inviting her colleagues in the Austin area congregations to present on topics related to pastoral theology. In this permanent role at Southwest, in addition to overseeing field education, she will teach courses in pastoral theology, christian formation, and mission. She is a proud alumna of Seminary of Southwest, receiving a Master of Divinity in 2015, and she begins work on a Doctorate of Ministry at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in January of 2025.
“The Director of Field Education and Lecturer in Pastoral Theology works at the crossroads of theory and practice, helping students live into their vocations as ordained ministers through experiential and conceptual learning,” said the Rev. Kathleen Russell, faculty emerita. Russell held the position Professor of Pastoral Theology when the Rev. Hawley was a student at Southwest. “Madeline is a great choice for this work. Her experience and competence as a parish priest and her personal qualities of enthusiasm, integrity, and collegiality will be a gift to the Seminary, its students and its faculty. Madeline weaves together passion and intentionality with a lightness and graciousness of spirit that reflect her deep commitment to her vocation, the Gospel, and the Church.”
Beyond the seminary she serves as an assisting priest at St. Mark’s San Marcos where her spouse Christian, also a Southwest alum, is the Rector. Together they have the joy of raising two small children along the beautiful San Marcos river. She also serves on the board of trustees at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School.
