(RNS) — A plan to save a troubled historic Episcopal seminary in New York has come under fire after seven bishops registered their opposition to offering a long-term lease of the seminary to a nonprofit with alleged ties to a Catholic music school funded by a conservative donor. The bishops, who lead Episcopal dioceses in New York and Long Island, issued a statement last month objecting that the School of Sacred Music, which is negotiating to sign a long-term lease with General Episcopal Seminary in New York, has ties to a donor that does not support rights for gay, transgender and queer people.
“We are concerned by the lack of full acceptance of the LGBTQ stance of its founders and the lack of transparency in its funding,” the bishops said, according to Episcopal News Service, an official church publication.
Founded in 1817, General, the Episcopal Church’s oldest and once most prominent school for training clergy, has, like many mainline Protestant seminaries, fallen on hard times in recent years. In the past fiscal year, it ran a $2.7 million deficit. The school’s campus, known as the Close, is also in need of tens of millions of dollars of long-deferred maintenance work.
The school recently replaced its residential student body with a hybrid online-in person Master of Divinity program and has little need for the dorm rooms and modest apartments that formerly housed students.
Hybrid Master of Divinity students in The Gene …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
“We are concerned by the lack of full acceptance of the LGBTQ stance of its founders and the lack of transparency in its funding,” the bishops said, according to Episcopal News Service, an official church publication.
Founded in 1817, General, the Episcopal Church’s oldest and once most prominent school for training clergy, has, like many mainline Protestant seminaries, fallen on hard times in recent years. In the past fiscal year, it ran a $2.7 million deficit. The school’s campus, known as the Close, is also in need of tens of millions of dollars of long-deferred maintenance work.
The school recently replaced its residential student body with a hybrid online-in person Master of Divinity program and has little need for the dorm rooms and modest apartments that formerly housed students.
Hybrid Master of Divinity students in The Gene …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]