The 2025 advanced degrees session will take place from June 9 through 27.

Summer 2025

Mapping Liturgical Structures

The Very Rev. James F. Turrell, Ph.D.
Vice Provost and Dean of the School of Theology
Norma and Olan Mills Professors of Divinity
Professor of Liturgy

 

Course Description: A seminar on the ritual patterns of the Christian Initiation and Holy Eucharist with attention to the evolution and theology of effective pastoral practice for the church today. Readings will emphasize current pastoral practice against the background of grounded liturgical theology.

The Liturgies of Holy Week and Easter

The Rev. Hilary Bogert-Winkler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Liturgy
The School of Theology of the University of the South

 

Course Description: This course will examine the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter. Students will examine their historical development, as well as their theological foundations. While the liturgies of the Episcopal Church's 1979 Book of Common Prayer will serve as the guide for this study, the course will also take note of the Roman Catholic influences on their development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as how other Anglican churches have developed these liturgies. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on how their congregations have or have not embraced these liturgies, how they may fit into extant catecuminal programs, and how they can develop formation programs to help their congregations embrace the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter.

History of Anglican Church Music

Geoffrey Harris Ward, D.M.A., A.R.C.C.O.
Organist and Choirmaster
All Saints' Chapel, The University of the South

 

Course Description: A survey of music in the English church from the Reformation to the present day. The evolving role of music in the Anglican liturgy will be considered against the backdrop of the history of the English church and the evolution of European musical style. Works by Byrd, Gibbons, Purcell, Handel, Vaughan Williams and others will be closely examined. Modern day composers representing the 21st century will also be part of this survey.

The Church in Society: Its Marks and Its Practices

The Rev. Britta Meiers Carlson
Visiting Instructor in Practical Theology
The School of Theology of the University of the South

 

Course Description: This course explores the church’s identity by examining its engagement in the world through worship and witness. Students will be invited to consider central questions in the study of ecclesiology by surveying a variety of approaches in the theological disciplines, especially practical theology, political and liberation theologies, and liturgical studies. While the course compels serious consideration of various Christian denominational and confessional perspectives, students will be encouraged to articulate how these frameworks inform their consideration of the contemporary situation in which the church is called to minister.

Preaching Pastoral Offices

The Rev. Shawn Stroud, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Chapel, Director of Assessment, and Assistant Professor of Worship
Virginia Theological Seminary

 

Course Description: “Preach the Gospel at all times”. But how to do this in the most sensitive or unpropitious circumstances such as the major life events that accompany baptisms, marriages, and funerals? Reviewing the heritage of Christian pastoral preaching, and exploring the social and cultural changes of the last fifty years, this course will allow the sensitive preacher to develop the tools and experience to preach confidently in the most unpromising of occasions.

Advanced Degrees Program