Sigh...

This came out today. The heart of the message includes:

February 20, 2008

To: Students, Faculty, and Staff of Seabury.

The Board of Trustees of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary spent two days at its regular February meeting in discussion of the immediate opportunities and challenges before the seminary...

Like many other Episcopal Church institutions, over the past two decades Seabury has both confronted and thought hard about how it can adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the present moment. We have come to the realization that we cannot continue to operate as we have in the past and that there is both loss and good news in that...

After consultation with the faculty, students, and staff, the Planning Committee met on Tuesday, February 19, 2008. The Planning Committee asked the board’s Executive Committee to clarify its understanding of the long-range educational mission of Seabury, and it proposed two resolutions which the Executive Committee passed in the following form on Wednesday, February 20, 2008:

The Executive Committee affirms that Seabury will no longer offer the M.Div. as a freestanding 3-year residential program. This does not preclude offering the M.Div. in other formats.

The Executive Committee accepts the 3 following recommendations of the Planning Committee:

1. That Seabury will immediately suspend recruitment and admissions to all degree and certificate programs in this time of discernment.
2. That Seabury will enable all current D.Min. students to complete their programs.
3. That Seabury will assist all current M.Div., MTS, MA, and certificate students to find alternative arrangements for the completion of their programs as may be required.

The Planning Committee will continue its schedule of weekly meetings so that it can produce a financial and programmatic plan in time for a special board meeting to be called in April. In the meantime, Seabury’s administration is at work talking with potential partner institutions both to enable the school to move forward in the future and to enable all those affected by these decisions to make the transitions they may be required to make as plans emerge.

Not entirely a surprise, and yet it is. I'm still absorbing, I guess. And wondering. And sad.

(Yes, AKMA. I'm praying. For all those involved.)