Giving thanks for our going-and-growing community

September has been a highly rewarding and very active month for everyone at Bexley Seabury.
The start of our Fall term brought dozens of students, many with us for the first time. We also welcomed hundreds of church and faith-minded community leaders to events in Chicago and Columbus.


In Chicago, on September 20 and 21 we welcomed more than 225 friends, familiar and new, to three opportunities to experience scholar-author-educator the Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggeman. Dr. Brueggemann preached at a Choral Evensong, presented a breakfast address, and conducted a roundtable conversation with church and civic leaders. His Chicago visit was part of our Faith in the City initiative cosponsored by Bexley Seabury and St. Chrysostom's, Chicago.

Days later we gathered with more than 100 alums, students, friends and neighbors for Columbus Convocation 2015. After a casual lunch, we devoted the afternoon and early evening to "Faith After #Ferguson," a long overdue community conversation on the sin of racism and the work we must do to heal and unite. The Very Rev. Mike Kinman, dean at Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, gave a sobering and stirring keynote address. Our panel of church and community leaders, assembled with assistance from Bexley Seabury Director Deborah Stokes, offered generous and challenging responses to Mike's address. We are deeply grateful to everyone who participated, and especially thankful to:

• Our distinguished panel moderator, Ray Miller, founder & publisher, Columbus African American News Journal
• Our equally distinguished panelists: Beryl Anderson, JD, former Ohio Deputy Secretary of State and former member of City Council, Gahanna, Ohio; The Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal, bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio; The Rev. Dr. Eric H. Brown, pastor, Woodland Christian Church, Columbus; and Charles Allen Wynder Jr., missioner for social justice and advocacy engagement, The Episcopal Church;
• The people of St. Philip Episcopal Church, Columbus, who hosted us in a spirit of grace and abundance.