This address was delievered by the Very Rev. Lydia Kelsey Bucklin on May 30, 2026, ahead of the annual Kellogg Lecture. Her accompanying slides are available both on this webpage and here.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the 2026 Episcopal Divinity School Kellogg Lecture. My name is Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, and I serve as the President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School.
It is wonderful to see so many of you who joined us last night for our annual alum Reception, followed by the ceremony honoring Dr. Ruby Nell Sales and the “Passing of the Torch” Commissioning. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Sales, her special guests, and the younger leaders who were commissioned last night. It is truly an honor to welcome you to the EDS community.
For those of you joining us this morning for the first time, whether here in person or online, welcome! We no doubt have a powerful and timely lecture to look forward to.
First, though, I would like to provide some context about EDS and where we find ourselves today.
EDS is a seminary reimagined for a changing church and world, dedicated to accessible, liberative theological education and leadership formation in local and global contexts.
While we were once a traditional residential seminary, we have undergone several transitions, with campuses in Philadelphia, Cambridge, and New York City. Part of our legacy is a willingness to embrace change to form bold leaders of faith who are confident and equipped to meet the rapidly changing needs of the church and the world.
EDS was formed in 1974 through the merger of Philadelphia Divinity School and Episcopal Theological School, two institutions that were already groundbreaking in their offerings.
In fact, when Philadelphia Divinity School was founded in 1857, it was open to students of all races, international students, and was ecumenical, not just Anglican. This was the Dred Scott era, when the vast majority of seminaries were strictly segregated and fundamentally exclusive. In 1929, PDS welcomed women as students, the first Episcopal seminary to do so.
EDS has always been willing to try something new. When The Episcopal Church asked its manifold seminaries to consider merging, it was ETS and PDS that responded to that call. When people were calling for more practical education, ETS responded by becoming the first seminary to teach the new biblical methods. When we needed to create online education to increase access, EDS responded to that call decades before the pandemic forced others to adopt hybrid learning.
This afternoon, we will hear from ETS students from the classes of 1965, 1966, and 1967 who, with their classmate, Jonathan Daniels, responded to the call of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led by phenomenal youth, such as Dr. Ruby Nell Sales, to travel to Selma to be in solidarity with the Southern Movement of Freedom Fighters.
Our legacy also includes supporting the development of queer and feminist theologies, with theologians such as Carter Heyward, and Anglican Global and Ecumenical Studies, of which Dr. Kwok Pui Lan and Bishop Ian Douglas were key leaders. And of course, the phenomenal work of the Rev. Canon Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean Emeritus of EDS, whose contributions to the fields of womanist and Black theologies have transformed scholarship, academia, and this church.
Those formed by EDS, many of whom are sitting here today, serve in their communities as prophetic leaders and organizers for justice.
While we may no longer offer academic degrees, we continue to offer robust, scholarly, widely accessible theological education:
Online courses
Public events offered in tandem with courses
One-time, timely public events
Film screenings, book reads,
and conversations like the one you’re about to experience, exploring the intersection of the Gospel and the moral issues of our day.
Reimagining theological education in this way has been liberating, because we are no longer focused on selecting a few exceptional folks to be educated for ministry. Instead, we are looking to bring the highest caliber of theological education to local levels in diverse settings, not just across our country, but around the world, particularly in partnership with members of the Anglican Communion in the global majority.
In fact, EDS will be engaging in a number of global projects this year, as we partner with USPG, an organization of which Dr. Paulo Ueti, who is with us this morning, serves as Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean. With USPG, we will support the Emerging Leaders Program, which equips young, dynamic changemakers from across the Anglican Communion, aged 20-35, with the knowledge, courage, deep spiritual grounding, and practical skills to navigate decolonial and contextual theologies and transform both them and your community.
We will also be supporting the Fellowship of Anglican Scholars of Theology, also known as FeAST, a network that facilitates encounters among Anglican scholars and the exchange of fresh theological thinking and research, building up Anglican scholars and scholarship marked by creativity, a critical edge, and courage.
And last but not least, we will work with USPG on an initiative supporting Indigenous Theologies, as we explore how we might be a decolonized church, holding both indigeneity and the colonial past with us.
We have a number of other global projects we are looking forward to, including working with Anglican seminaries across Africa to increase access to scholarly resources from a liberation lens and to support African scholars and theologians. We will also be partnering with the Anglican Alliance in the areas of gender justice and Reimagining Power as well as the Anglican Communion Office’s Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion, with whom we will work to co-host a gathering around Decolonizing Theological Education next April.
We are excited to reclaim our place in a global space. And in the words of Dr Ueti,
“EDS is envisioned as a strategic North American partner that can host critical reflection, amplify Indigenous and Afro-descendant theological voices, and help shape Episcopal and Anglican advocacy at the intersection of theology, climate justice, and racial justice.”
As we continue to grapple with transboundary crises like pandemics, climate change, and neocolonialism, it is crucial that we engage in this work. Gathering with our global partners deepens relationships and allows space where lived experiences of the impacts of the harms of greed and oppression can be named and challenged - so that they can be resisted and transformed. A participant from our Living Postcolonial Anglicanism which took place in Atlanta last fall shared that the gathering felt like a new vision of the Communion was being midwifed into being.
Our dream for EDS is to cultivate classrooms accessible to learners across the globe, offering robust theological education for all ministers and leaders of our church – regardless of ministry status or social location – to better equip us as followers of Jesus to do the pressing work that God is calling us to do today with moral courage, integrity, and humility.
I am pleased to share that our approach to theological education has been very well received.
In fact, over the past 18 months, about 6000 unique individuals have attended an EDS program. Approximately 2,000 of those folks attended 2-5 events, and more than 300 people have joined us 6 or more times for an offering of theological education. If you have joined us for an EDS offering, please raise your hand.
It turns out people are hungry for spaces where they can reflect deeply and critically on topics of scripture, ethics, theology, and faith.
While change brings loss, it also brings opportunity.
Just look at this map, which shows the areas where today’s EDS community is located. Our context is global, because we are called to pattern ourselves around the teachings of the Gospel, which dismantles the false boundaries of empire and colonialism.
This is what I was taught as a student at EDS, and it is what I carry forward as President and Dean.
I would like to highlight just a few of our current and future offerings and programs.
Soon, we will launch a new structure of course offerings, with multiple courses offered each term. These courses will be taught by leading theologians and scholars, some of whom are with us today, including The Rev. Canon Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dr. Kwok Pui Lan, Dr. Paulo Ueti, and the Rev. Dr. Liz Magill. These courses will be announced a year in advance, so folks can plan accordingly. I’d like to acknowledge the incredible work of the Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley, who is building a cutting-edge department of Theological Education, of which he serves as the director.
We are so pleased to be joined by EDS alum, the Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers and nine visionary leaders for the inaugural “Innovating Beloved Communities Cohort.” This transformative year-long program will equip a circle of faithful innovators to discern, incubate, and launch ministries that advance a multicultural Beloved Community in their local communities. Could these cohort members please stand and wave?
We have also just concluded our inaugural group of EDS Fellows, this first group being Emerging Women Leaders from the Global South, led by Dr. Kwok Pui Lan, with the collaboration of Dr. Esther Mombo, and Dr. Jenny Te Paa-Daniel.
In the words of one of our fellows, Sunshine Dulnuan, “I carry deep gratitude for our mentors, who have helped pave the way for Anglican women across the Communion through their courage, wisdom, and witness. Their triumphs, struggles, and enduring influence continue to inspire many of us who are still finding our voice and place in theology and the Church.”
Many of you know Pui Lan is our remarkable Distinguished Scholar through the end of this year and in that role has been teaching, publishing, mentoring, hosting podcasts and multiple webinars, and planning and leading conferences on postcolonial anglicanism and decolonizing anglican theological education. I cannot thank her enough for all she has offered and continues to offer to EDS. Please join me in acknowledging her.
I am also excited to announce our incoming distinguished scholar, the Rev. Canon Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean Emeritus of Episcopal Divinity School. She and Dr. Crowley will lead a new Fellows cohort, entitled “The Ruby Sales Black Scholars Fellowship: A Premier Initiative for Black Religious Scholarship and Public Theology.” More information about this fellowship will come soon!
This fall, in conjunction with our Annual Report, we will launch a rebrand and a new website. Many of you may receive surveys or requests for feedback as we approach this work. We hope you will participate, as you are the EDS community we are walking alongside. I’d like to acknowledge our amazing communications team, Mary Grace Donohoe and Dustin Jesudason, who are working hard this weekend to make this gathering accessible to our community members online and to tell the story of EDS today.
While you will soon hear more, I want to at least share a preview of the hard work of a recent strategic planning team, made up of EDS leadership, consultants, alums, and trustees. You’ll see here our four strategic orientations as we move forward:
- The Academy - a commitment to academic scholarship, including contributing to emerging theological reflection and investing in new discourse, while cultivating a community of scholars
- The Global Communion - connecting local communities within a global network for mutual learning, truth-telling, and ecclesial transformation
- The Wider Church - cultivating a more expansive and inclusive understanding of what it means to be the Church today through ecumenical partnerships and collaborative learning
- The Public Square - bringing liberatory theological reflection to the public by engaging timely issues and nurturing moral courage
I hope you share my excitement for this newest iteration of EDS. We have come a long way in the past year and a half with a small team of deeply caring, gifted, passionate people. If the staff could please stand for acknowledgement. This weekend alone has been a tremendous lift for our little engine that could and I am extremely proud of their work and grateful to have them as colleagues.
I would also like to thank our Board of Trustees, many of whom are here this weekend. Trustees, would you mind standing? We are blessed with a phenomenal group of leaders who are supporting EDS with a passion for what is emerging and a deep dedication to caring for the EDS community.
I’m excited to announce we have just expanded our Board of Trustees to include 5 new folks who will join us in the work, this new class of trustees includes the important voices of Indigenous and global leaders, further diversifying our governing body, as we strive to walk the walk of decolonizing theological education.
Last, but not least, I want to acknowledge our alums. If you are an alum of EDS, would you please stand or raise your hand? (pause for applause). I continue to be inspired by you in your daily work, moving us ever closer to God’s dream of peace, justice, and healing. Thank you for hanging with us through the thick and the thin.
EDS is uniquely positioned to do something the church has never seen before. The model we are cultivating today embraces and expands upon a legacy of curiosity that seeks what’s next for the church and informs our pedagogy and priorities with perspectives from the margins.
Whenever I share these updates, people inevitably ask, "Lydia, how can I get involved? How can we bring more of this into the world?" We welcome your partnership. We welcome your collaboration. And to fully realize our strategic vision, we also welcome your meaningful financial investment. We need you to partner in how we accomplish this work.
Look at what this small, passionate team has built in just 18 months: nearly 6,000 unique individuals engaged, cohorts established, transformational space hosted, global partnerships launched, and more.
We have the momentum. We’re building the team. We have the vision, the skills, and the partners to make it happen. If you are listening today, thinking, “Yes—I want more of this in the world right now,” I invite you to invest in this next iteration of EDS. YOUR meaningful financial investment matters for EDS. Every individual gift and financial sponsor allows us to scale up our offerings and expand our global reach.
For those of you here in person, you will find a QR code right on your name tag to make a secure gift today. For our community online, a link is being posted in the chat right now. Reimagination requires intentional investment and action. I am excited about what we can do - together.
Thank you for reimaging seminary with us.
And now, I am so very excited to transition to the 2026 Kellogg Lecture!