Order of Saint Benedict Servants of Christ pledges gift to endow chair in ascetical theology and monastic studies
Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, is proud to announce a historic gift of $3.5 million from the Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ. The gift, presented to Nashotah House this week, endows a professorship in ascetical theology and monastic studies and an annual international conference on religious life and Anglicanism.
When the gift was pledged several months ago, it was the largest commitment received in the history of the seminary and its first endowed professorship. Founded in 1842, Nashotah House is the oldest degree-granting institution of higher education in the State of Wisconsin. The institution was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in January.
This gift is a part of the school’s 175th Anniversary Transformational Gift Initiative. The total raised to-date for this initiative is $7.25 million.
The Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ was founded in 1968 by the Very Rev. Dom Cornelis deRijk, OSB, a priest and Benedictine monk, with the Rev. Canon Lewis Long in Phoenix, Arizona. The Order is a Benedictine community guided by the balance of prayer, study and work. The late Rev. deRijk, head of the order, received his Master of Divinity degree from Nashotah House in 1976.
“This generous gift-investment will honor the Order’s legacy of service, keeping it alive in perpetuity. It will ensure that, for generations to come, House seminarians will benefit from their exposure to the great Church leaders and mentors who will occupy the Professorship and present at the annual international conference,” stated the Very Rev. Steven A. Peay, dean and president of Nashotah House.
“We are humbled and proud that the Servants of Christ and their place in Church history will be permanently tied to Nashotah House and its mission.”