Molli Mitchell, student representative on the Board of Trustees and a student leader, shared at our October meeting that a second-year student came up to her during the opening of the fall term and stated: “I knew I was missing out, but didn’t know I was missing this.” As a first-year student, having experienced ANS only online, the “this” was the community - the warm touch of connection and sense of belonging, the gracious hospitality, the opportunity to fully “see” a classmate, a professor, or a staff member (or all three at once!), to experience the joy and power of worship together. Coming back together, while also experiencing deep unrest in the world, renewed the need for reflection, and for tending to pastoral care. As Trustees returned to campus this past spring our top priority was gathering with students to share with them personally our deep commitment to their calling, and to hear how we can best support them in this ever-changing, and at many times deeply divided world, a world desperately in need of their ministry. A world that needs to be reminded about the power and grace of Leading with Love. 

 

The board has supported the substantial work called for in our refreshed strategic plan, which includes an increased emphasis on Gospel-based social justice and anti-racism. This past February, our Board released a “Trustee Statement on Andover Newton Seminary at YDS and Slavery and Racism”. We deemed this especially important in light of current efforts to foster a diverse and just community, educating tomorrow’s faith community leaders to enact Gospel-inspired social justice in an array of ministry contexts. After careful consideration, the board chose to make an imperfect yet earnest effort at shedding light on the truth of the past in this specific, yet painful, area. Sharing our findings in this exploration was not something we took lightly, for doing so would likely cause trauma, especially for those whose ancestors suffered. We also recognized the deep wounds of slavery are still open and sometimes fresh. Our statement does not absolve ANS, like a majority of historic and predominately white institutions, Yale Divinity School, and Andover Newton have healing work to do, work our Board is committed to. 

 

This past year our board has also been keenly focused on our upcoming permanent affiliation with Yale Divinity School. The joint YDS and ANS ad hoc committee charged with evaluating the affiliation met in June. The key finding emerging from the meeting was that all three criteria for determining success in the march toward permanent affiliation laid out in the Phase II Agreement between YDS and ANS have been met. A vote by the committee affirming that the affiliation should proceed to permanent status was unanimous. Our board will work with YDS Dean Greg Sterling and the Yale team to finalize our permanent affiliation this winter and we look forward to celebrating this momentous occasion with all of you.

 

The ANS Board continues to feel blessed by the exemplary leadership of Founding Dean Sarah Drummond and her deeply committed leadership team who continue to exceed expectations and faithfully serve our beloved seminary.  Despite three years of upheaval and needing to constantly revise plans due to the pandemic, Andover Newton continues to grow and flourish, and we are now focused on shaping our future with a Capital Campaign. Dean Drummond and her team have an ambitious plan tied to our strategic goals that our Board wholeheartedly supports. Our Leading with Love campaign is focused on endowing our second faculty chair in the spirit of our first African American graduate George Washington Williams, eliminating all financial barriers for aspiring leaders, and funding a reimagined community-building seminar that supports future ministers in learning how to build and rebuild relationships in our fraught world. We hope you will join us as the campaign gets underway in ensuring a vibrant future for inspiring leaders!

 

Finally, our board, a diverse and faithful group of twenty-eight clergy and lay people, continues to be filled with immense gratitude for all who have sustained and supported Andover Newton Seminary.  We believe deeply in our mission to educate inspiring leaders for faith communities, for as Trustee Diane Parrish recently said about our students “By answering the call to ministry, you are uniquely essential for the health of humanity”. Praise be to God!

 

On behalf of the Board of Trustees,

 

Hannah E. Kane

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