 | Remembering the 1881 Chapel | Establishment of the Cemetery in 1876 Remembering the 1881 Chapel | |
Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury - December 15, 2010 (Click Here For The PDF)
My dear Ian,
Greetings in this season of Advent!
I was very sorry to hear of your recent fire at Virginia Theological Seminary and wanted to send you my personal commiserations on the loss of the chapel. I have heard that the college community stood on the grounds and watched as this building, which is at the very heart of your life together, burnt to the ground. This must have been a traumatic experience for the whole college, and in particular for those students inadvertently involved in starting the fire.
I know that your pastoral care for students and colleagues will have been personally costly to you in the days and weeks that followed the fire. Virginia Theological Seminary plays such a valued part in the life of the Communion and your own ministry in developing and sustaining relationships across difference is much appreciated. Please be assured of my prayers both for you and for the whole college community as you play for re-building.
With every good wish for Christmas.
Yours ever,
Rowan
|
The red brick 1881 Gothic chapel at Virginia Seminary meant many things to many people before the fire of October 22, 2010 charred and consumed it.
For me it was the place where we prayed out our conflict over the Viet-Nam conflict, the place where I prayed out my uncertainties over ordination and marriage, the place where Clifford Stanley proclaimed to a Good Friday congregation that on the Cross Jesus, by refusing retaliation, absorbed into himself the power of evil.
During twenty-one years as a teacher the chapel was my prie-dieu. It trained my body to show up, assume the postures, and so to attend to the discomfiting and comforting voice of God – and to the concerns of my brothers and sisters. At midday on September 11, 2001 neighbors crowded in with the Seminary community to pray to God while jet fighters circled over a smoking Pentagon. At this altar both of my children were married. From this chapel we were sent out– to love, to forgive, to serve, to build, and to reconcile.
I could never say, despite improvements over the years, that the chapel’s architecture and decoration taught me the beauty of holiness. One teaching whose impact I did repeatedly observe over the years was the black-letter inscription of the words of the risen Jesus over the stained-glass representation of his commissioning his disciples: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.” Many who came for holiness found themselves dispatched instead on our Father’s unfinished business in his contentious world.
Near the contested north-south border within oil-rich, civil-war-devastated Sudan sits the village of Abyei. Two years ago rival armies anticipated the possible resumption of civil war in a skirmish and burning of the village, including its Episcopal church. The church and village burned to the same black dust that now fills the shell of Emmanuel chapel. In Alexandria as in Abyei, we are bereft. There and here we are disoriented. There and here we recover by remembering. We go back to the unfinished work we have been given to do. We go back out – to love, to forgive, to serve, to build, and to reconcile.
Thanks be to God.
Richard J. Jones
Emeritus Professor of Mission & World Religions
October 26, 2010 |
Reflections of a Faculty member on the loss of Immanuel Chapel |
I am in mourning for the loss of a place that I dearly love. To say that the experience of worship can over time reach down to your very bones is an understatement; it can becomes as much a part of your life as eating or as the daily round of sleep and wakefulness. I have worshipped in Immanuel Chapel at least five times a week for every week of the past 27 academic years. I have seen members of my extended family married in the chapel and buried from it. I have witnessed the marriage of students and the baptism of their children. I have participated in the ordination and installation of colleagues, and have helped to carry their remains from the chapel to the nearby seminary grave yard. And best of all, year in and year out I have had the privilege of worshipping along side of men and women who have come to this institution as part of their preparation to serve their Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Some have stayed near and others have gone far, and they but they have been missionaries all—bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
It is possible that some elements of the chapel will survive. Many of the lower lancet windows appear to have remained intact. The brick walls of the chapel are still standing, though there is appropriate concern about how stable they are at this point. At this point, there is no report on the interior of the building, but it is possible that some of the stone monuments to previous faculty and supporters have survived.
There were, however, many things that were lost in the fire. What I will most miss are those reminders of generations of outgoing students who served in foreign mission. Three particular elements come to mind: 1) The altar rail, made from wood brought from Liberia, where John Payne (VTS 1836) served as the first bishop. 2) the stunning Tiffany Windows in the liturgical North transept. Depicting Paul making a case for the Gospel before King Agrippa and Queen Bernice, they were given by Mrs. Henry B. Gilpin in thanksgiving for the life of William Cabel Brown (VTS 1891) who went from Virginia Seminary to serve as one of founder of the Episcopal Church in Brazil. 3) The window over the altar depicting Christ’s Great commission with the inscription “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.” A gift of Mrs. S. F. Houston of Philadelphia, it has inspired generations of worshippers.
In the near future, we will be without a chapel. It is likely that we will return to our historic practice of dedicating an alternative space as a “prayer hall” in which worship can be held. This is not the first time that Virginia Theological Seminary has been without a chapel. Our first chapel building (1839-40) fell into such disrepair during and after the Civil War that it was finally condemned for use in 1879. The current building was not completed until 1881. In the intervening years, members of the community continued, however, to gather for prayer and continued to prepare themselves for service to Christ in the world.
I will miss the chapel building I have known, but with God’s grace we will find a place for the men and women of this community to gather together to hear the Word of God read and proclaimed and to raise their voices in common prayer and song. And we can be assured that the Lord is with us, wherever it is that we gather.
The Rev. Robert W. Prichard, Ph.D.
The Arthur Lee Kinsolving Professor of Christianity in America,
and Instructor in Liturgics
October 23, 2010
|
| | | Facebook Messages
The night I discovered (on Facebook) that the chapel had burned down, I broke down and cried. Never in my life had I cried with such grief at the destruction of a thing. People and animals, yes, but not a thing like a building. But then, the chapel was more than a building to us. It was a holy hill where we experienced... the transcendent God. It was a place I went and prayed when I wondered if I'd make it through a tough class. All of us who have been part of the VTS family for over 100 years found that place to be one that inspired. We will all carry the memory of that sacred place with us--and it is something we all share, regardless of when we studied at our beloved VTS. God bless... - Mifflin Dove, Jr.
So incredibly devastating. What loss for so many people who have found peace and solace in those walls. - Sally Engleby Farrell
This is the first church that my daughter really remembers. She was three when came to VTS. This is the first church my son really engaged as sacred space. He was six. Each saw the picture attached to the ENS article which shows the burned interior. They... both cried (and it's not often that jaded teenagers allow their parents to see them so affected). I hadn't really felt the loss of this wonderful place until I saw how the loss impacted them. - Michael Cadaret
This is very sad.. I was married in the Chapel.. my Dad was ordained there and his memorial service was there -- and I spent many Sundays at service.. very very sad .. so many memories - Linda Carr-Kraft
Oh my...prayers said there, sermons preached there, sang in Superstar there, homiletics with Milton Crumm there, most of all quiet moments teaching my mother that it was OK for older Episcopalians to "pass the peace", there. seminary family eucharists,Graduation day!, praying when nobody wlse was there in the afternoo...ns, listening to the old place creak, and a certain old musty smell, great memories...great sadness. - David Rich
On the morning of 9/11, having felt the earth quiver and heard the boom of the explosion at the Pentagon, the seminary community was drawn to the Chapel for prayer, and in a sense stayed there even though we moved about day by day in many directions. The Chapel truly was a place of prayer, and even though we move on, t...he place where we knelt has left its imprint on our bodies and hearts. - R Ellen White
I remember reading for the first time in Chapel, all the Morning Prayers and Eucharists. It will be a hard task for the VTS community to create a new worship space--partly because WE are the "temple" in which God's spirit dwells! A "house made with hands" is just that. My prayers are with the current students and ...faculty, as well as with all the alums, etc. - Anne Weatherholt
If any building has ever felt immortal to me it is the chapel. Seemed like it has always been there and always would be. We turn to the immortal, invisible One. - Dena Bearl
This chapel was - and remained - one of the most precious spaces in my life, even though I had not stepped through its doors in over 10 years (shame on me). I was graced by God and Ray Glover with the opportunity to play the organ there for a number of morning prayer services and even when the ABofC visited VTS. Thos...e quiet times of practicing musical praise to God were holy for me. - Dorothy Chatham Hartzog
The loss of the VTS Chapel is heartbreaking. - Anna Rolen
I feel as though my best friend just died....and my prayers go especially to the current seminary students, faculty, and staff who have to now look at the burned out skeleton that is left, transformed from something that was so beautiful, reassuring, and inviting. - Dave Wright, 1977
I grieve the loss! That sacred space has been a special place in my spiritual journey. - Catherine Campbell
Like literally thousands of others, Barbara and I are grieving. I was ordained deacon there, Charlie Price's sermons changed my mind (somewhat) there, daughters Jenny and Libby were married there, sons Michael and Davie and daughter Jasmine were baptized there, and I wore a pew in the (liturgically) south transept smooth. - William S Stafford
|
|
| |