Bishop-elect of Massachusetts welcomes new students at EDS matriculation ceremony

[Episcopal Divinity School Release]: In a matriculation ceremony held on Sept. 8 in historic St. John's Memorial Chapel, Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) officially welcomed seven new residential students to the Cambridge-based seminary and theological graduate school.

The Rev. Alan M. Gates, a 1987 alumnus of EDS and bishop-elect of the Diocese of Episcopal Divinity School Massachusetts, delivered the matriculation address, noting that almost exactly 30 years before he had matriculated in the very same chapel. [Audio of the address is available here; text of the address is available here.]

The matriculation ceremony has been a tradition at EDS, and at its predecessor schools, the Philadelphia Divinity School and the Episcopal Theological School, for more than a century. In it, new students by tradition become official members of the EDS community, and sign the matriculation book, an action that is symbolic of each student's commitment to her or his intellectual and spiritual formation at EDS.

This year's incoming residential students hail from four states and two countries—the United States and South Korea. Six of the seven are candidates for the Master's of Divinity degree, with one student working towards a certificate in Anglican studies.

EDS holds two matriculation ceremonies each year, one in the fall welcoming residential or traditional learning students, who will live on or near the Brattle Street campus and take classes at EDS or its partner schools in the Boston Theological Institute. The other is held each year in June and welcomes low-residency, or distributive learning students, who come to the EDS campus twice a year for two-week intensive courses, and take live online-simulcast classes throughout the year. In June 2014, EDS welcomed its largest-ever distributive learning class.