Episcopal Divinity School
Jean Steele ’68 Award
The Reverend David J. Siegenthaler, D.D. ’55, ’95
In an essay on spirituality David Siegenthaler
wrote: “The Book of Common Prayer is informative for Anglicans not only
for definition of doctrine and polity but as well for the content and style of
spirituality. That book is the matrix. The concerns and consequences of
corporate worship are the concerns and consequences of personal worship. In its
simplest terms this means that Anglican spirituality is personal but never
private, never detached from an individual’s engagement with the community and
with the world. Anglican spirituality seems always—as do the services of the Book
of Common Prayer—to compel the individual back into the world….The
individual is empowered to rejoin the ranks of the larger company, to go forth
in concert with others, ‘to continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such
good works as God has prepared for us to walk in.’”
This is precisely what theological education
is meant to do as well. Students come for a time, enriched and shaped by
teaching, worship, and community life and then, empowered by our formation and
training, we are sent back into the wider church and world, among that holy
fellowship, as we together in concert, laity and clergy alike, undertake the
work that God has prepared for us to walk in. For generations of students,
staff, faculty, and alumni/æ at Episcopal Theological School and Episcopal
Divinity School, the Reverend David Siegenthaler has played a vital and
integral role in this particular matrix of theological, spiritual, and
liturgical formation, refreshment, and empowerment.
It might surprise some to know that David
Siegenthaler, who seems so much the quintessential Anglican, started life as a
Lutheran. His father was the pastor of churches in Buffalo and Baltimore. Nor
did David initially pursue his own theological education here on Brattle
Street. Rather, that was in New Haven at the Yale Divinity School. In God’s
good time, however, David was lured into the Episcopal Church by the richness
of Anglican spirituality and the Prayer Book tradition he describes so
eloquently. He found his way here to Brattle Street and into our lives
initially to pursue graduate studies before being ordained in June of 1955 by
Bishop Norman Burdett Nash (ETS 1915).
David returned to ETS in 1969, a well-seasoned
priest, to serve on the faculty as a tutor in church history and as librarian
in the then-new Sherrill Library. He has been a constant and gracious presence
ever since—46 years, so far. In the Library David has cared for the School’s
archives and special collections with particular dedication and devotion. In
the classroom and as a senior tutor David inspired generations of students to
read the texts of history carefully and deeply. Katharine C. Black ’86 recalled
especially a course titled “Hearth and Altar—Christian Nurture in England on
the Eve of the Reformation.” It ended with students recreating an authentic 14th
century feast, including some kind of whole beast roasted over an open fire in
the back campus parking lot. Only a lover of history, like David, could inspire
his students to bring the middle ages to life with such powerful, if smoky,
effect. But, lest we imagine, falsely, that David actually lives in the middle
ages, we shouldn’t forget that he also proudly served as a concelebrant for the
consecration eucharist of Bishop Barbara Harris in 1989—remembering and
cherishing our sacred past, while standing firmly in the present, much like EDS
itself.
I arrived at EDS in 1995 after David had
“officially” retired from teaching—so there was no “Hearth and Altar” or
roasted beast for me. But, of course, a teacher like David never truly stops
teaching—whether in the classroom, chapel, or refectory. A particular recollection
of those years is David’s annual historical tour for new students, highlighting
points of interest on the EDS campus—the Flemish inspired architecture, the
chapel windows, and even the conspicuous presence of the Partridge Parchment in
the stained glass window of the Tyler Room. Some of us who were no longer new
students took the tour every year, just to absorb as much lore from David as we
could.
The same was true when one year David
co-taught Liturgical Practicum with Lloyd Patterson and John Hooker, regaling
us with tales of his curacy in Boston and rectorship in Duxbury. A particular
story that comes to mind is of a baptism early in his curacy at Emmanuel Church
on Newbury Street. The baby was wearing a slippery gown and David said that it was
touch and go for a while, worrying that the child might slip right out of his
arms. My favorite moment, though, was David’s tutorial on liturgical
haberdashery. After explaining that the tippet is worn over the hood, what
exactly an amice is, and how to tie a cincture, David offered us his general
philosophy of liturgical attire, which is fairly easy to remember: “the more
fabric the better!” He probably should have received a commission from Almy’s
and Wipple’s after his impressionable students, like me, rushed out to order
the longest and flowiest surplices possible. I think of David every time I wear
it.
Most of all David has been a friend and
inspiration to generations of students and alumni/ae, to say nothing of faculty
colleagues and staff. Whether in the refectory, out on the campus quadrangle,
or in Harvard Square along Brattle Street, David has a unique ability to forge
friendships, bringing to nearly every conversation his extraordinary grace and
wit, to say nothing of his wry smile. What day isn’t made better by breakfast
or lunch with David Siegenthaler, or even just a tip of his hat?
There is no way that we could even begin to
count the number of lives David has touched and the ministries he has shaped in
nearly fifty years of ministry on this campus. There is no way we could count
the number of hearts that are warmed simply by the thought of this gentle,
caring, and witty man, who has devoted his life to this school and to the
training of clergy and laity for ministry in the church and the world.
No one epitomizes what EDS is and can be when
it is at its best than the Reverend David Siegenthaler. Twenty years ago the
faculty honored David upon his “official” retirement with an honorary Doctor of
Divinity degree. Tomorrow, the School will honor him by dedicating the Library
Atrium in his name. Tonight, it is the Alumni/æ Association’s turn.
Therefore, in recognition of his faithful,
dedicated and inspiring ministry in and to this School, I am extraordinarily
pleased to present the Reverend David J. Siegenthaler ’55, ’95 with the
Alumni/ae Association’s Jean Steele Award, our highest honor and given now for
only the fourth time, for exemplary service to Episcopal Divinity School and in
thanksgiving for all the ways that he has inspired and empowered generations of
students and alumni/æ to do all of the good works that God has prepared for us
to walk in.
Matthew P. Cadwell ’99
Co-President, Alumni/ æ Executive Committee
