Bexley Seabury Seminary sees itself as a Seminary Beyond Walls. This self-characterization, in part, refers to our low-residency/high-context model of theological education that allows people from around the country to study with us from their places of residence and ministry. They do this by participating in our "hybrid" courses that mix weekend or weeklong intensive classes held on campus with online learning in between. They bring their ministry experiences and the realities of their local communities with them.

 

Being a Seminary Beyond Walls demands more of us than just offering an innovative non-residential educational model. We aim to form leaders who will come to appreciate ministry as a beyond-walls, boundary-shattering activity that provides glimpses of that for which we refuse to give up hope: God's reign of love and justice in the world.

 

We in this seminary community of learners, lay and ordained, are teaching each other to look beyond the walls of church and academy to see what is happening in our local, national, and global communities, and to hear what God is calling us to do and to be in response to that call. Lately, we don't like much of what we see. We see blatant discrimination, exclusion, and rejection of God's beloved. We see truth-denying disregard for the health and well being of our planet and of its creatures. We hear unapologetic hate-filled and judgmental rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims, and undeserved blame cast upon those who are sick, poor, and most vulnerable...