Waco, Texas (October 13, 2025) – Following extensive conversations with Seminary faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, and with strong support from Baylor University’s central administration, Truett Seminary announced today the formation of an Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.
As a strategic initiative of the Seminary in response to a growing number of Anglican and Episcopal students at Truett, this new graduate-level house of studies will cultivate theologically grounded, liturgically formed, and missionally engaged clergy and lay leaders for service in Anglican and Episcopal contexts.
“Since its inception, Baylor’s Truett Seminary has welcomed and trained ministers both within and beyond Baptist life. In recent years, especially through Truett’s Wesley House of Studies, our Seminary has enjoyed an influx of students from other Christian denominations. Indeed, there are currently no less than 26 different denominations represented in our school’s student body,” noted Truett Dean Todd D. Still, PhD. “The launching of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett is due primarily to our commitment and desire to equip more fully the Anglican and Episcopalian students who are already studying with us and have been entrusted to us. Our present and future hope is that we would prepare them and other such seminarians well so that they might thoughtfully, faithfully, and skillfully serve as ministers of the gospel across this vast and vibrant communion of believers around the world.”
Truett Seminary, an orthodox, evangelical, multi-denominational school in the historic Baptist tradition, currently enrolls 15 students from various dioceses within the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), The Episcopal Church (USA), and from other provinces across the globe.
Through the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies, Truett aims to strengthen support for current students while deepening relationships with the ecclesial bodies already represented at the Seminary. The House will also seek to build new connections with other like-minded bishops, rectors, and prospective students.
To guide this work, Truett Seminary has appointed Matthew Aughtry as the acting director. A priest in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and resident within the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO), Aughtry’s time as an Anglican has primarily been defined by assisting various church plants in both Los Angeles and Waco. He also serves Baylor University as an associate chaplain, working as the assistant director for chapel and ministry in the arts in Spiritual Life. His leadership in this new role will help shape the House’s early vision and future development.
Aughtry reflects on his journey to this role, “I’m forever grateful for the youth leader in my small-town Baptist church who noticed my imaginative nature and introduced me to C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, which first caused me to consider the immense importance of the Church in my life with Jesus. Mere Christianity followed, with its vision of the Church as a mansion—its broad hallways full of lively conversation, yet its rooms alone reserved for offering food, fire, and rest. Seminary ushered me into the Anglican room of this great estate. The Prayer Book’s sustaining patterns have become a safe harbor for me through years of church-planting and ministry in Baylor Chapel. I am honored by Dean Still’s invitation to join the launch of this initiative at Truett Seminary, a place I have experienced as akin to Mere Christianity’s magnificent mansion. It is my joy to serve this room, and I anticipate the ways doing so will further the mission of the entire home.”
Representative Endorsements for the House in Alphabetical Order:
“Our world is in the middle of a significant season of global upheaval and reconfiguration. These realities are encompassing almost all aspects of modern life, including both our social and geopolitical fabrics. The Church is not immune to these realities, and thus, we are also in a season of ecclesial realignment. Once upon a time, distinctions in polity determined the extent and breadth that churches and leaders were willing to be trained with one another and collaborate among one another. We are waking up to the realities that in a world such as ours, polity itself is too weak to uphold collective cooperation, whether it be in ministry preparation or sustainment. Truett Seminary has uplifted a prophetic vision to offer space for distinction in polity and Christian heritage within a broader commitment to a globally-engaged, evangelically orthodox theological witness. The new Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett, along with the preexistent Wesley House and the core DNA of the Baptist/Free Church community, demonstrates for theological education what the wider Church must attend to in other arenas. If the broader, joyfully confessional evangelical community can find its way together to prepare future church leaders, then perhaps our congregations, denominational structures, mission agencies, and the like, will follow suit. I praise God for the growth of Truett Seminary and the newly launched Anglican Episcopal House. It is a forerunner to the days ahead!” – Chris Backert, Senior Director, Ascent Movement
“The apostle Paul lived and advanced Christian faith within the context of Christian community. While many of us live in cultures that prioritize individualism, I give thanks for The Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. The vision and commitment to nurture Christian faith within a vibrant Christian community is both biblical and the path to spiritual flourishing. I am profoundly grateful for this initiative.” – Mimi Haddad, president and CEO, Christians for Biblical Equality International
“I’m so grateful to God that, after granting me such a meaningful heritage of faith in one denomination, he didn’t let me miss the immensity of riches in the Anglican tradition. When my husband and I first began attending an Anglican church, I kept asking myself, how did we miss this? Where has this been? To me, the Anglican Church in North America was the best secret in faithful Christianity. So, you might imagine how delighted I am that Baylor University’s Truett Seminary has added the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies. It’s time for this marvelous Christ-centered, gospel-preaching, Scripture-teaching, people-reaching secret to get out!” – Beth Moore, Founder and President, Living Proof Ministries
“How wonderful that Truett continues to expand its vision of theological education by establishing an Anglican Episcopal House of Studies. This initiative opens up rich possibilities for ecumenical formation while also enhancing the mission of the church. I am delighted to see this kind of seminary response to Jesus’s prayer that all may be one so that the world may know – Elizabeth Newman, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Theology, Duke Divinity School and vice chair, Baptist World Alliance Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity
“When I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church nearly 15 years ago, I had a sense that God had good plans for the Anglican Communion. That sense has grown into a conviction that brings me great joy. The Anglican Episcopal House at Truett Seminary is another sign of that movement of God. It will become one of the few places where ruptures from the past can be mended through personal relationships, but its setting in Texas with the rich resources of Truett, makes it a unique place for future scholar pastors to experience community, learning, and worship that will shape them and their ministry for decades to come. God is on the move, and I am excited to see what is to come.” – Amy Peeler, Kenneth T. Wessner Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College and Associate Priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Geneva, IL
“I am deeply grateful for the formation of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. Truett is a faithful and trustworthy place, with a proven track record of training students for a wide variety of roles even as it keeps its eyes fixed on the priority of serving the local church. As a parent of a Baylor alum and one current undergraduate, I appreciate the University’s mission to raise up leaders who serve their communities and the state of Texas, while also engaging with global realities. This pairs beautifully with our identity as a diocese which is a member of a robust worldwide communion — a fellowship of believers that is at its best when we are listening and learning from brothers and sisters across the globe. I am excited about sending postulants from the Diocese of Dallas to Truett’s AEHS, in the total confidence that they will be effectively formed in the proclamation of the Gospel and as servants of the Lord Jesus who will speak his grace — in word and deed — into the lives of the parishioners they are called to lead.” – Rob Price, Dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, TX and Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas
“Faithful proclamation of the gospel in word and deed is at the heart of Baylor University and Truett Seminary. God has blessed this faithfulness and is drawing people from across denominational lines to become formed and equipped for Kingdom service. It is a joy to celebrate the opening of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett Seminary and to welcome these brothers and sisters as we seek to glorify and serve God together in the Church and the world.” – Charles Ramsey, University Chaplain and Dean of Spiritual Life, Baylor University
“Texas Baptists affirm the mission of theological education that is Christ-centered, biblically grounded, and committed to the formation of Christian leaders for Great Commandment/Great Commission ministry in and alongside Christ’s Church. In this spirit, I want to express support for the establishment of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at George W. Truett Theological Seminary. This initiative is a thoughtful and faithful effort to serve the broader body of Christ through ecumenical engagement and academic excellence, rooted in the historic Christian faith. As a Baptist community, we value our distinctives while also embracing opportunities to collaborate with Christian sisters and brothers who seek to proclaim the Gospel, foster spiritual formation, and equip leaders for Great Commandment/Great Commission ministry. The presence of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies reflects Truett Seminary’s ongoing commitment to forming ministers from a variety of traditions within the one body of Christ. I am confident that this new initiative will enrich the seminary community, broaden theological dialogue, and enhance the preparation of students called to serve in their respective ecclesial contexts. It is my prayer that this partnership will bear lasting fruit for the Kingdom of God.” – Stephen M. Stookey, PhD, Director of Theological Education & Institutional Engagement, Texas Baptists
“As a priest and writer, I am always looking for places where the next generation of leaders can be formed, equipped, and sent into their vocational calling, places that can foster theological clarity and knowledge, but also a life shaped by wisdom, compassion, service, beauty, and faithfulness. This task of forming Christian leaders requires not only rigor in education, but a community outside the classroom that worships together, lives life together, supports one another, and is, together, steeped in the Christian tradition.
“The Anglican Episcopal House offers this kind of holistic formation, and I am honored to be included as a collaborative partner in this new effort. This new initiative at Baylor’s Truett Seminary is born of a profound need for communities of study and prayer that are committed to the Scriptures and the resourcement of the tradition, and, therefore, capable of an imaginative, faithful, and hopeful response to the needs of this cultural moment.” –Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night
“People often ask me where in the USA they can be trained for ministry within the Anglican tradition. Such folks are looking for a theological education that, in the words of Bishop J. B. Lightfoot, will combine the ‘highest reason’ and the ‘fullest faith’, being both academically rigorous and spiritually nourishing. A fresh answer to this question is now provided by the newly formed Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, where you will find a team of highly skilled and experienced teachers and mentors. Over the last decade or so I have frequently interacted with Truett Seminary and its leadership. They offer an excellent preparation for the demands — and the delights! — of gospel ministry in the twenty-first century.” – N.T. (“Tom”) Wright, Senior Research Fellow, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford; Emeritus Professor, University of St Andrews; and formerly Bishop of Durham
Through this initiative, Truett Seminary deepens its commitment to equipping Christian leaders for faithful service in and alongside Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. To learn more, visit https://truettseminary.baylor.edu/programs-centers/anglican-episcopal-house
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.
ABOUT GEORGE W. TRUETT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
George W. Truett Theological Seminary is an orthodox, evangelical, multi-denominational school in the historic Baptist tradition embedded into Baylor, a Christian R1 University. Truett’s mission is to equip God-called people for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist World Alliance, Truett Seminary provides theological education leading to the Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, Master of Arts in Contextual Witness and Innovation, Master of Arts in Theology, Ecology and Food Justice, Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies (online), Master of Theological Studies, Doctor of Ministry, and PhD in Preaching. In addition to a number of distinctive programs, institutes, and centers, Truett Seminary also offers joint degrees through Baylor University school/college partnerships in social work, business, law, music, and education. Besides its flagship Baugh-Reynolds Campus in Waco, the Seminary also has locations in Houston and San Antonio. Visit the Truett Seminary website to learn more.