The entire community of The General Theological Seminary welcomesthe Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle, who was elected at the May 14 Board ofTrustees meeting as the13th Dean and President. He is dedicated toencouraging, forming, and equipping leaders to witness to thehealing and reconciling power of Jesus Christ throughout our Churchin our many and varied ministries and communities. In selecting thisnew leader, the Board of Trustees has resolved to build on andstrengthen General Seminary’s mission of sending into servicegraduates of fine theological mind and skill, inventive perception, andresourceful capacity, fully prepared to lead our parishes amid thechallenges facing our church and the world.

The search for the new Dean and President began after the May,2012, meeting of the Board of Trustees when Lang Lowreyannounced that he would retire as president in June, 2013. BishopMark Sisk, Chairman of the Board, then began the process of forminga search committee to propose a candidate. In October, 2012, theboard elected a 12-member committee, with Bishop Sisk as the ex-officio head. Members of the committee represented lay andordained stakeholders in the broad GTS community of episcopal,

faculty, student and alumni groups, as well as trustees. The searchcommittee presented its nominee to the Executive Committee of theBoard in February, 2013. Following their agreement with therecommendation, the full board nominated the Rev. Kurt H. Dunkleof the Diocese of Florida.

Deirdre Good, Professor of New Testament and member of thesearch committee remarked, “I've been on three search committeesfor a Dean and President of GTS and this is the one in which I havethe most confidence with regard to process and outcome. Thesearch committee met weekly by conference call for the duration ofthe search and in person toward the end. Members worked hard andwith care. They listened to each other respectfully. Randall Greene,the chair, worked with great diligence, energy, and good humorthroughout the process. No one could have done a better job.”

General Seminary is now engaged in the development of strategicinitiatives that live into our proud, urban, theologically progressiveheritage, firmly rooted in the Anglican tradition, anticipating thegrowing needs of Christian witness and ministry through worship,spiritual formation, fellowship, and social justice.

Dean-elect Dunkle is already engaged in the good work of GeneralSeminary as he seeks to accomplish his goal of making GTS “joyful,thankful and useful.” Read more about Dunkle inside.

The Search for a New Dean and President

GTSNews Quarterly

440 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011(212) 243-5150 www.gts.edu

TheGeneral

Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church

THE SEARCH

MEET KURTDUNKLE

NEWS & NOTES

UPCOMING EVENTS

AND MORE

SPRING 2013

The Class of 2013

The Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle was elected on May 14 as the 13thDean and President of The General Theological Seminary inNew York City by the GTS Board of Trustees. He will officiallybegin serving in his new position on July 1, 2013.

In his address to the Board of Trustees following his election,Dunkle said, “We need to return importance to the word‘General’ in our title; we are The General Theological Seminary.We are the seminary for the entire church, not just one aspector discrete group. We need to embrace the meaning andimportance of being The General Theological Seminary inpreparing for the leadership of the entire church.”

Dunkle voiced another goal for his first year to make sure thatGeneral is “joyful, thankful and useful: joyful in serving ourmission of creating real leaders for the 21st century church;thankful to God for providing us this wonderful opportunity for ministry in Jesus’ name; and useful to the Episcopal Church. I am so excited to see how this joy will unfold, how we can bemost useful to growing our faith communities. This is awonderful time to be an Episcopalian and a great time to be at General. Alleluia!”

Born in 1961, Dunkle is a native Floridian and cradle Episcopalian.He and his wife, Cathleen, have two daughters; Caroline is a risingsenior at the University of Florida in Gainesville; and Maddie is arising sophomore at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC.

Dunkle served as Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in OrangePark, Florida, a parish which experienced significant growthunder his leadership. Just before his arrival in 2006, 965 of the1,000 members had left the parish because of disagreementswith The Episcopal Church. Today, the parish has over 500members, an average Sunday attendance of almost 200, anexpanding parish day school, a new organ, and emergingprograms and parish life created from scratch. “I like to growthings and people,” Dunkle said.

In his first call after ordination, Dunkle served as Canon to theOrdinary in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida, with responsibili-ties for staff administration, deployment, and representing theRt. Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard in all aspects of diocesan life,particularly managing clergy and congregational conflict.

In addition to his service within the Diocese of Florida, Kurt hasserved the wider church in a number of important roles:

Appointed by the Presiding Bishop, Dunkle is a member of theBoard of Governors of the Anglican Centre in Rome and servesas the Chairman of the American Friends of the Centre. Inaddition, he has been a Deputy to General Convention in 2009and 2012 and a member of the Constitutions Committee ofGeneral Convention in 2012.

Dunkle is a 2004 graduate of General Seminary, where heearned the Seymour Prize in Preaching and served as amember of the Admissions Committee. Previously, he workedas a partner at Rogers Towers, the largest law firm inJacksonville, Florida. He earned his Juris Doctorate from theUniversity of Florida’s College of Law, where he served on theEditorial Board of the university’s Journal of Law and PublicPolicy, and his bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

Dunkle believes one important characteristic of GeneralSeminary’s future mission will be to teach future leaders how tohelp faith communities thrive. “Right now, one of thefundamentals largely missing in seminaries is how to grow thechurch in numbers of participants and in depth of engagementwith Jesus Christ,” he said. “Training leaders to grow people andinstitutions–not just maintain them or even manage thedecline gracefully–is essential in our Episcopal Church today.The Church and General should not just focus on survival; it’sabout thriving. We need to develop a culture where thriving isthe norm, and having more people in our Church with anincreased focus on Jesus is the key to thriving.”

GTS News Quarterly Issue Nº 9 May 2013

A publication of the Office of CommunicationsThe General Theological Seminary of The Episcopal Church440 West 21st StreetNew York, NY 10011

Published four times a year in February, May, August, and November

EditorChad Rancourt, Director of Communications

Copy EditorV.K. McCarty, Keller Library

Meet the NewDean & PresidentAN INTRODUCTION TO THE VERY REV. KURT H. DUNKLE

The Rev. Arlette Benoit, whorecently graduated from GTS witha Master of Divinity degree and aCertificate in Spiritual Direction, isbecoming a national leader foryouth ministry in The EpiscopalChurch. While at GTS, she was anintern in The Episcopal Church’sOffice of Black Ministries, workingto develop the Rising Stars Experi-ence (RISE). She was recentlychosen to serve on the PlanningTeam to design and lead the trien-nial Episcopal Youth Event (EYE)

Mission in 2014. She currently serves as a Liaison to the Officeof Youth Ministries and is a transitional deacon in the Dioceseof Atlanta. For more stories about GTS students and graduatesputting their faith in action, go to news.gts.edu/stories.

All the latest news from General Seminary can be found atnews.gts.edu. Read more about the stories in this issue at:

news.gts.edu/notes

The General TheologicalSeminary held its 191thCommencement onMay 15, 2013. Forty-sixwomen and menreceived degrees,diplomas, or certificatesconferred by theSeminary's Associate

Dean, the Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy. The Seminary’s honorarydoctorate was conferred on the Reverend Carol Anderson, theRight Reverend Andrew M. L. Dietsche, and the Right ReverendDorsey W. M. McConnell.

The Rev. Dr. Amy Bentley Lamborn,Assistant Professor of PastoralTheology, has been awarded aSummer Research Fellowship bythe Wabash Center for Teachingand Learning in Theology andReligion for her proposal, “Figuringthe Self; Figuring the Sacred:Manuscript Revision.” Funded bythe Lilly Endowment, theprestigious Wabash SummerFellowship awards $5,000 for fiveweeks of full-time scholarlyresearch or writing. Prof. Lamborn will complete her projectthis Summer and report her accomplishments to the WabashCenter by September, 2013.

GTS Professor Amy Lamborn AwardedWabash Fellowship

GTS NEWS QUARTERLY 3

Arlette Benoit Rises as a Leader inEpiscopal Youth Ministry

191st Commencement Ceremonies

On Thursday, March 21, a crew from CBS News came toChelsea Square to interview Dr. Deirdre Good,Professor of New Testament, for a feature about theVirgin Mary. During the hour-long interview by Martha

Teichner, Prof. Good spoke about life at the time of Mary, theimportance of the Annunciation, and many other aspects ofMary’s life andsignificance. Selectparts of the interviewwere included in thefeature, Who was Mary?,during “CBS NewsSunday Morning” onEaster Day, March 31.

CBS News Interviews Prof. DeirdreGood about the Virgin MaryNews & Notes

HAPPENINGS ON THE CLOSE AND BEYOND

GTS has established The Rev. Davis Given Housing ScholarshipFund to assist matriculated GTS students with the cost of on-campus housing. Upon his death in 2007 Davis Given left theSeminary a generous bequest, which will be used to honor hislegacy as a community builder. “We strive to provide affordablehousing to our students while they are here in New York City,”says Donna Ashley, Vice-President of Institutional Advancement.“GTS is committed to attracting seminarians of academicexcellence and true gifts for ministry, regardless of theirresources. Legacy gifts such as this ensure those leaders arechosen on their merits.”

General Seminary Boosts Aid for On-Campus Housing

The Most Rev. Katharine JeffertsSchori, Presiding Bishop, has namedthe Rev. Dr. J. Robert Wright asHistoriographer Emeritus of TheEpiscopal Church. “As the newtriennium begins, I want to take thismoment to offer my abundantthanks to you for your faithfulservice as Church Historiographerfor several years,” Jefferts Schoriwrote in a letter to Wright,bestowing the honor. Wright maybe the first to be named as

Historiographer Emeritus in the history of The Episcopal Church.

J. Robert Wright Named HistoriographerEmeritus of The Episcopal Church

The Back PageEVENTS AND TIDBITS

Faith in ActionProviding and encouraging opportunities for semi-narians to put their faith into action remains a keyelement of formation at General Seminary.

The Rev. JK Melton (’13) sharpened his vocationalskills with ministry in Tanzania through the opportu-nity of the GTS FAR and Wide Scholarship, and isnow posted at Christ Church, Lynbrook, NY.

While at GTS the Rev. Arlette Benoit (’13) nurturedher passion for youth ministry by interning at TEC’sOffice of Black Ministries, and is now serving as aLiaison from Atlanta to the Office of Youth Ministries.

The Rev. Chris Ballard (’12) is Curate at St. Luke andSt. Matthew in Brooklyn, and has partnered withOccupy Sandy and Habitat for Humanity to provideongoing relief and support efforts.

As we welcome a new Dean and President, GTS isengaged in strategic initiatives that live into itsproud tradition, anticipating the growing needs ofChristian witness and ministry through worship,spiritual formation, fellowship, and service.

To read in-depth stories about GTS students andgraduates applying their Faith in Action, go to

news.gts.edu/storiesIf you have a story you’d like to share with the community,

please email gtsalumniae@gts.edu

GTSNews Quarterly A publication of The General Theological Seminary

of The Episcopal Church in the United States440 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011

Alumni/ae Gathering 2013

SAVE THE DATE

Wednesday & ThursdayNovember 6-7, 2013

FEATURINGThe highly anticipated Paddocklectures by Elizabeth DrescherPresentation and celebration of Br. Clark Berge’s DistinguishedAlumni/ae Award

Special receptions for 50th and 25threunion celebrants for both the 2012and 2013 years

Chapel services, Memorial Eucharist

A wonderful banquet in the Refectorythe evening of Nov. 7

Meet our new Dean and President,the Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle (’04)

See old friends and make new ones!

Summers at General Course O!erings

Registration is open for excitingcourses to be offered in the Summer2013 term, and General Learners areespecially welcome to study. Even ifyou are not pursuing a formal degree,come take courses to explore faith,ministry, and prayer.

Three & Five-day CoursesJune 24-26 The Book of Job:

Doubt and RadicalQuestioningwith the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Owens,Professor of Old Testament

July 22-26 Finding Your Prophetic Voicewith the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson

Aug. 29-31 Spirituality of Preachingwith the Rev. Dr.Jonathan Linman

For more information go togts.edu/alumniae

For more information go togts.edu/summer

Giving to GTSBy including GeneralSeminary in their wills,trusts, or other forms ofestate planning, themembers of the JacobSherred Society have joineda powerful legacy ofphilanthropic support toprepare future leaders ofour Church. We invite you toconsider creating aphilanthropic legacy foryourself, a loved one, or amember of your parish, bystrengthening General’slong-term mission.

Learn more atgiving.gts.edu