Virginia Theological Seminary, the largest of the accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church, welcomed 45 new students on Monday for the 2025-26 academic year, bringing total enrollment to 216 students from around the world.
The Alexandria seminary’s entering class includes students from 26 dioceses across the United States, as well as from Burundi and South Korea. The new students include 21 Master of Divinity candidates, seven Master of Arts students, seven Anglican Studies students, eight Pathway to Ministry students and two Diploma in Theology students.
Seven students come from denominations outside The Episcopal Church, including the Methodist Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The academic year began with the traditional Opening Eucharist with Academic Procession, which included a Matriculation Rite introduced two years ago where new students affirm their commitment to the seminary community.
“Each fall is a moment of hopefulness,” said the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of VTS. “A new class enters Virginia Theological Seminary to learn the tradition, to serve the Church and to bear witness to the Gospel in the world.”
In his sermon, Markham reaffirmed the seminary’s commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion, calling it “an expression of our deepest theological commitments because it is what we have learned of God through Christ.”
The seminary also welcomed two new visiting professors: Hannah Black as visiting professor of history and theology through a two-year Louisville Institute appointment, and the Rev. Janiece Renee Williams as visiting lecturer in homiletics for one year.
Founded in 1823 on an 88-acre campus at 3737 Seminary Road, VTS has graduated 3,288 alumni who serve in 103 U.S. dioceses and 56 countries worldwide. The seminary maintains a 92% placement rate for graduates and provides full scholarship funding covering tuition, housing and meal plans for full-time residential master’s-level students.
More information is available at the seminary’s press release.
