kids encyclopedia robot

Nashotah House facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Nashotah House Theological Seminary
StudentCommonsNashotahHouse.jpg
Type Private graduate institution
Established 1842; 182 years ago (1842)
President Garwood Anderson
Academic staff
20
Administrative staff
15
Students 86
Location , ,
United States

43°4′56.5″N 88°25′33.5″W / 43.082361°N 88.425972°W / 43.082361; -88.425972
Campus Rural
Nickname The House, The Mission, Black Monks
Affiliations Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS), Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU)

Nashotah House is an American theological seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism. The seminary opened in 1842 and received its official charter in 1847. The institution is independent and generally regarded as one of the more theologically conservative seminaries in the Episcopal Church (United States). It is also officially recognized by the Anglican Church in North America. Its campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

RedChapelBlueHouse
The oldest buildings on campus: Red Chapel and Blue House

History

Nashotah House was founded by three young deacons of the Episcopal Church; James Lloyd Breck, William Adams, and John Henry Hobart, Jr., who were all recent graduates of the General Theological Seminary in New York City, at the bidding of Bishop Jackson Kemper. Gustaf Unonius was the first graduate.

Nashotah House was, from the beginning, a center for High Church thought and discipline. Breck, the first dean, was highly committed to the principles of the Oxford Movement. Later, noted professors such as James DeKoven would bring Anglo-Catholic worship and practice to the seminary. This began with the daily celebration of the Eucharist as well as the use of vestments, candles, and incense.

Nashotah House considers itself to be within the orthodox Anglo-Catholic tradition. Overall, the faculty support traditional theology and conceptions of Christian doctrine in opposition to liberal theologies. Graduates themselves come from a variety of jurisdictions both inside and outside of the Episcopal Church. Nashotah House sees its mission to form priests and church leaders from all over the Anglican Communion.

In February 2014, Bishop Edward L. Salmon, Jr. invited Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, to preach at the school. The decision was condemned by the seminary's largely conservative supporters who cited Schori's tactics of suing parishes that left the ECUSA over doctrinal matters, as well as what they considered her heretical views. In response, two bishops who were members of the Nashotah House Board of Trustees resigned or distanced themselves from the school.

Academics

Nashotah House offers a variety of degree and certificate programs aimed at training clergy and lay leaders for ministries in the Anglican Communion:

  • Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.)
  • Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.)
  • Master of Divinity (M.Div.)
  • Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.)
  • Master of Arts in Ministry (M.A. in Ministry)

It also offers a one-year certificate program in Anglican studies, geared toward students who have received an M.Div. from a non-Anglican institution and wish to be ordained within the Anglican tradition. The M.A. in Ministry degree may be earned through a combination of residential and online study. The M.Div., M.T.S., S.T.M., D.Min. and M.A. in Ministry degrees are accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS).

Campus

StMaryVirgin
The Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin

The property of the Nashotah House Theological Seminary covers 365 acres (148 ha) of land.

The main buildings of the seminary include, from oldest:

  • Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, designed by James Douglas in Gothic Revival style and built in 1862.
  • Webb Hall (faculty and guest housing, the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul), Gothic Revival style, built 1865 and added to in 1926 and 1950.
  • Shelton Hall (student housing), Gothic Revival style, built in 1869. Photo in box above.
  • Sabine Hall (faculty offices, student housing), designed by Alexander Eschweiler in Gothic Revival style, built in 1892, and expanded in 1910.
  • Lewis Hall (administration and faculty offices, the Saint Francis Oratory), designed by Eschweiler in Gothic Revival style and built in 1892.
  • Frances Donaldson Memorial Library, designed by John B. Sutcliffe in Collegiate Gothic style, built in 1911, and expanded in 1982.
  • Kemper Hall (classrooms, student housing, gymnasium), designed by Eschweiler & Eschweiler in Neogothic Revival style and built in 1956.
  • James Lloyd Breck Refectory, designed by Eschweiler & Eschweiler and built in 1965.

There are also apartments for both single and married students, and several houses for the dean and other faculty, as well as maintenance facilities.

Construction has been completed on a substantial addition to the refectory. The newly dubbed Adams Hall includes a large meeting hall and additional classrooms.

Student life

InsideRedChapel
Interior of the Red Chapel

Nashotah began as a community inspired by traditional monastic life of prayer, work, and study. James Lloyd Breck's vision was to create a center for Christian formation in the (then) wilderness that would also be movement to propagate other communities for the purpose of evangelizing the frontier. Today, much of this vision remains intact and students still live a Benedictine cycle of prayer, work, and study. The life of the Seminary seeks to form the character of priests and leaders into the image of Christ. Various students have been involved in mission work around the Anglican Communion as well.

"Seminarians are invited to participate in an ascetic, disciplined, prayerful season of spiritual growth in Christ" in which they "practice the Benedictine Rule of daily prayer, labor, and study." All students have work crew assignments - cleaning bathrooms, mowing lawns, sweeping floors and taking other chores. Daily routine includes Morning Prayer, Mass, breakfast, classes, lunch, and Solemn Evensong. Always anticipated on the campus is the annual St. Laurence Cup, a flag football game played against students from Sacred Heart School of Theology and St. Francis Seminary (Wisconsin). The formerly annual Lavabo Bowl game was played against Seabury-Western Theological Seminary which stopped granting residential Master of Divinity degrees in 2010 after ceasing to accept new M.Div. seminarians in 2008

Notable alumni

Gustaf Elias Unonius
Gustaf Unonius, first graduate of Nashotah
ClearMike
Michael the bell which calls the community to prayer
  • Keith Ackerman (born 1946), Bishop of Quincy
  • Robert Duncan, archbishop, Anglican Church in North America; honorary doctorate
  • Louis Falk (born 1935), bishop, Anglican Church in America
  • Richard F. Grein (born 1934) bishop of Kansas and New York
  • Daniel W. Herzog (born 1941), Bishop of Albany
  • William Wallace Horstick (1902-1973), Bishop of Eau Claire
  • Benjamin Franklin Price Ivins (1884-1962), Bishop of Milwaukee
  • Russell Jacobus (born 1944), Bishop of Fond du Lac
  • Charles Jenkins (born 1951), Bishop of Louisiana
  • Christopher Kovacevich (1928–2010), metropolitan of Chicago, Serbian Orthodox Church
  • William Jay Lambert III, bishop of Eau Claire
  • Jeffrey Lee, bishop of Chicago
  • Charles Wesley Leffingwell (1840-1928), editor of The Living Church
  • Edwin M. Leidel, Jr., provisional bishop of Eau Claire
  • William H. Love (born 1957), bishop of Albany
  • Taylor Marshall, Catholic convert, spiritual writer
  • Esau McCaulley, African American biblical scholar at Wheaton College (Illinois)
  • John McKim (1852-1936), bishop of North Tokyo
  • Don Moon (born 1936), physicist, president of Shimer College
  • James Orin Mote (1922-2006), bishop in the Anglican Catholic Church
  • C. Wallis Ohl, Jr., provisional bishop of Fort Worth
  • Alan M. Olson (born 1939), philosopher
  • Mark Pae (born 1926), bishop of Taejong
  • William C. R. Sheridan (1917–2005), bishop of Northern Indiana
  • Dabney Tyler Smith, bishop
  • Harwood Sturtevant (1888-1977), bishop of Fond du Lac
  • Gustaf Unonius (1810-1902), priest, author
  • Reginald Heber Weller (1857-1935), bishop of Fond du Lac
  • Keith Bernard Whitmore, bishop of Eau Claire
  • Gary Wilde (born 1952), priest, author
  • Greg Kerr-Wilson, bishop of Diocese of Calgary, metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land

Notable faculty

BreckCross
Grave of James Lloyd Breck in the Nashotah House Cemetery
  • Richard Fish Cadle (1796-1857), first superior of Nashotah House
  • James DeKoven (1831-1879), faculty member
  • Donald J. Parsons, (1922-2016), Professor, Dean-President 1950-1973, Bishop of Quincy
  • Walter C. Klein, (1904-1980) Dean-President 1959-63, Bishop of Northern Indiana
  • Harry Boone Porter (1923–1999), professor, editor of The Living Church
  • Michael Ramsey (1904-1988), Archbishop of Canterbury, adjunct professor
  • Edward L. Salmon, Jr.,(1934-2016) Dean-President 2011-15, bishop of South Carolina
  • Arthur Anton Vogel (1924-2012), professor, bishop of West Missouri
  • William C. Wantland (1934), faculty member, bishop of Eau Claire
  • William Walter Webb (1857-1933), professor, president, bishop of Milwaukee
kids search engine
Nashotah House Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.