Andover Newton Seminary

Each year, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School identifies a theme that helps guide our mission to be deeply rooted in Christian faith and radically open to what God is doing now to educate inspiring leaders for faith communities.

For 2025-2026, we are exploring the theme: Radical. Sustainable. Faithful. 

Radical comes from our mission statement: “Deeply rooted, radically open.” While often tied to political disruption, the word “radical” shares its etymology with rooted (like radish, or eradicate). Both senses apply to our work. For more than 200 years, Andover Newton has claimed that faith community leadership matters deeply. In a culture that prizes consumerism and technology above all, our insistence on cultivating faithful leaders is both disruptive to the status quo and a return to the roots of our tradition.

Sustainable reflects our recent history and current commitments. In 2016, Andover Newton relocated to Yale and affiliated with Yale Divinity School to ensure a sustainable model for our mission. That sustainability now takes concrete form in choices like ANS’s decision to invest in YDS’ construction of  Bauer Hall, a  dormitory that rises to the global “Living Village” challenge and gives back more power to the grid than it consumes. Every decision we make is guided by our commitment to prepare learned clergy, not only for today but for generations to come, sending ministerial gifts into the community and into the future.

Faithful names the motivation behind it all. Our work is grounded in faithfulness to God’s call, so that God’s love and justice may be made real, generation after generation.

This year, we live into these words—radical, sustainable, and faithful—as we continue our legacy of preparing leaders for the church and the world.

Each year, the Andover Newton Spirit of the Hill Award is conferred on an alumna or alumnus who, through the grace of God, displays a strong devotion to renewing church and society through ecumenical witness and creative expression of the Gospel and commitment to enacting God’s ways of justice and love in the world.

Awardees must demonstrate the faith and courage provided by liberating visions that compel them toward thoughtful, compassionate, and timely responses to cultural and religious conflict. A recipient must possess the ability to respectfully cross borders within and across religious traditions and to help others do the same, thus serving as repairers of the breach.

Finally, those recognized have committed to dutifully promote fellowship among Andover Newton graduates and commitment to the school’s mission through contributions of time and energy to the ANTS constituency.

On October 7, 2025, in conjunction with the 2025 Convocation and Living Village Grand Opening Celebration, Andover Newton Seminary will proudly recognize Rev. Dr. Ned Allyn Parker (ANTS MDiv, 2010) as the 2025 recipient of the Spirit of the Hill Award. In response, Founding Dean, Rev. Dr. Sarah B. Drummond, shared the following thoughts:

“The ‘Spirit of the Hill’ alumni/ae award recognizes both achievement in ministry and dedication to Andover Newton. I am so pleased that the Andover Newton at YDS Alumni/ae Board selected Ned Allyn Parker (ANTS 2011) as this year’s recipient. Ned joined the Andover Newton’s admissions team in Newton just weeks after beginning his Master of Divinity. After recruiting and supporting dozens of students who are now faithful alums, Ned went to Seattle to serve as a pastor on the staff of Seattle First Baptist Church. We then brought him back east when Andover Newton was relocating and needed a leader to help us to carry our identity from Newton, MA to New Haven. Ned currently serves as the Interim Senior Pastor at First Church in Windsor, CT, and we are excited to thank, recognize, and celebrate him at Alumni/ae Convocation in October.”

Congratulations, Ned! Thank you for leadership, passion, and lasting contributions to Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School. 

Dear Friends of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (YDS):

Grace and peace to you all.

Although I don’t customarily reach out to stakeholders about governmental matters, pending legislation compels me to do so. I’m writing with a concern about a provision in the tax bill under consideration in the US Senate: “Modification of excise tax on investment income of certain private colleges and universities” (Sec. 112021 of “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill”).

If enacted, this provision would directly affect Andover Newton Seminary at YDS’s capacity to offer scholarships and programs to students called to ministry. I hope you’ll consider contacting your Senators to object to this provision. 

Echoing sentiments in a letter from Yale President Maurie McInnis, YDS Dean Gregory Sterling wrote the following  to the YDS community on May 27:

In 2017, Congress passed—for the first time in US history—a bill that taxed universities that have a minimum endowment of $500,000 per student. The tax rate was 1.4% on the distribution from the endowment, which now costs YDS approximately $130,000 per annum. Last week, the House passed a bill that would increase our tax rate to 21% or $9 million per annum for YDS […], a rate 15 times greater than the rate that we currently pay! If passed, it would consume nearly 25% of our income.

In addition to this significantly increased tax, the bill also includes devastating cuts to social services, and I by no means propose a false equivalence between the tax and the harm such cuts might cause. Rather, I write because Andover Newton’s constituents need to know the threat we’re facing.

In 2017, Andover Newton’s leaders chose YDS as a partner and vessel for the continuation of our mission to educate Christian ministers. The move represented a new, more sustainable financial model that relies on income from philanthropy and investment proceeds. Before our move from Newton to New Haven, tuition and dormitory rentals – both paid by seminary students – were our main revenue sources.

By choosing to become an embedded unit at Yale, Andover Newton rightly shifted the financial burden of theological education off the backs of future ministers. Seminary tuition debt was, after all, pressuring not just graduates but their future churches. Like Yale as a whole, we now rely on endowment investment proceeds to fund scholarships, faculty chairs, and many ministry education programs.

We’re proud to have played a role in making Andover Newton and YDS tuition-free for all students with demonstrated financial need. This is possible through endowment investment proceeds.

The bill under consideration places universities in a category of institutions that cater to “elites” but then proposes a tax that targets financial aid funds that increase access to higher education. If the tax law passes as-is, we at Andover Newton at YDS would have no choice but to reduce the size of our student body and the scope of our programs.

Universities, divinity schools, and seminaries serve the public good through educating those who’ll make church and society better. What can you do to help?

1. ALWAYS: Speak out in your churches about how important it is that pastors receive outstanding theological education and enter ministry with minimal educational debt. Share with the thoughtful people you know how these values are under threat. 
2. RIGHT NOW: Contact your Senators, who are debating the tax bill. If you care about the endowment proceeds tax as well as other parts of the bill, send separate messages for each concern so that your position on this specific issue is tallied.

Andover Newton’s partnership with YDS has enriched the education we can provide our students, and our presence has enriched YDS. While we wouldn’t have been exposed to this tax if we hadn’t become part of Yale, the financial burdens of remaining independent made alternatives impossible. With your help, and together with our partners at YDS and Yale University, we can overcome this new challenge as we have others in the past.

Among the many lessons recent years have taught us at Andover Newton, here’s the one I hold most dear: we must protect our mission, because educating thoughtful and inspiring leaders for faith communities is important. Our society needs prepared and faithful people who can convene us around questions of morality and meaning, including and especially at such a time as this.