This year, Berkeley welcomed a friend from the Church of England to give the Cheney Lecture for 2018, and to receive the degree of Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa.  Click here to view Bishop Seeley’s lecture in it’s entirety.

Martin Seeley is Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in the Church of England, and Chair of the Ministry Council of the Church of England, the national body  responsible for advising the House of Bishops and the dioceses over the work of nurturing vocations to ministry, the selection and formation of candidates for ministry, and continuing ministerial development and deployment. Bishop Seeley’s lecture will be on “Congregation, Community and Context: Realigning Theological Education.”

Before appointment as diocesan bishop, he was the Principal of Westcott House in Cambridge, where many Berkeley students have undertaken exchange programs. He holds degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, and the Union Theological Seminary, New York.

The Cheney Lecture is usually given in alternate years, in memory of Francis X. Cheney, one-time professor at Yale Divinity School and Director of Development for Berkeley, in an effort to continue his example of transcending doctrinal and vocational differences to focus on the care of the whole people of God. Previous lecturers include John Macquarrie, Madeleine L’Engle, Krister Stendahl, Krista Tippett, and Jane Shaw.

This year’s Cheney Lecture took place on Tuesday October 16, in Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School. In honor of Bishop Seeley’s contributions to the church, the Trustees of Berkeley Divinity School awarded the honorary degree during Evensong later that day.