Trinity School for Ministry Needs You!

"I know how antichrist knowledge hath obscured the glory of God and the true knowledge of his word, overcastting the same with mists and clouds of error and ignorance through false glosses and interpretations. It pitieth me [grieves me] to see the simple and hungry flock of Christ led into corrupt pastures, to be carried away blind they know not whither, and to be feed with poison instead of wholesome meats."

On March 21, 2006 Anglicans around the world commemorated the 500th anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Over five hundred years ago Archbishop Thomas Cranmer penned these words in the Preface to his Defense of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament. He was describing conditions in the Church of his day. He and his fellow Reformers, John Bradford, John Hooper, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and others, sought to restore the true setting forth of God’s Word in the English Church and died as martyrs to the cause. These words written more than five years ago are an apt description of conditions in the Episcopal Church in our day. Apostate bishops and theologians denigrate the truth of God’s Word and deride and ridicule those who believe the teaching of his Word. Once more antichrist knowledge obscures the glory of God and the true knowledge of his word, casting mists and clouds of error over the same.

Since the disappearance of the Evangelical tradition in the Episcopal Church in the late nineteenth century, modernist theology has come to dominate most of the seminaries of the Episcopal Church. Dr. Leslie P. Fairfield, professor of Church History at Trinity School for Ministry, the Episcopal Church’s only Evangelical ministerial training school, writes:

Modernism asserted that God is not a transcendent, personal creator, but rather an impersonal “force” that fills the universe. Nothing exists other than nature; miracles do not happen; Scripture is not a revelation but a collection of primitive writings; “salvation” means “enlightenment;” and Jesus was simply an inspired man. In the 1960s, the “Situation Ethics” (an idea popularized by an Episcopal seminary professor) and the “Death of God” theologies capped this rejection of Christianity. (Leslie P. Fairfield, Our Heritage & History, p.2)

In 1976 the Trinity School for Ministry was established to restore a biblical ministry to the Episcopal Church as Archbishop Cranmer had sought to do for the English Church in his day, a ministry whose chief office is “the setting forth of God’s word truly to the people in preaching and instruction, in the administration of the sacraments of the gospel, and in diligent pastoral labor” (Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, Theology of the English Reformers, p. 206). As well as training Episcopal ordinands, Trinity School for Ministry also trains students from East Africa - from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Since the early 1990s the seminary has focused upon training church planters and missionaries not only to serve in the mission field abroad but also in the increasingly secular culture of the United States itself. A growing number of Trinity students have become involved in cross-cultural evangelism.

Trinity is a “faith seminary.” Since its founding it has depended upon God and the generosity of its supporters. The student body of Trinity is growing and with it the need for increased support of the Annual Fund. A record increase (20% or $400,000) in the 2006 Annual Fund is need this year to maintain a balanced operating budget. The Annual Fund goal for this year is $2.4 million. Trinity needs both your prayers and your gifts.

You can save your stamp by giving online. Go to www.tesm.edu/give.

Many of Trinity’s donors take advantage of corporate matching gift programs and secure a matching gift for the seminary, doubling the impact of their gifts. For more information about corporate matching gift programs, you can contact Leslie Deily, Director of Development.

I urge you to support with your prayers and gifts the one seminary in the Episcopal Church that stands firmly with the English Reformers in seeking to restore the true setting forth of God’s Word in his Church.