Historic $3.5 million legacy gift to Nashotah House bears fruit

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Nashotah House receives gift Nashotah House receives gift
(L to R) Steven A. Peay, President, Rev. R. Craig Bustrin, President - Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ, Dr. Chad Van Pelt, Secretary-Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ, Diane Plantenberg, Associate Dean Office of Institutional Advancement

Nashotah House Theological Seminary is proud to announce an historic gift of $3.5 million from the Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ. The gift endows a Professorship in Ascetical Theology and Monastic Studies and an annual international conference on religious life and Anglicanism.

When the gift was pledged several months ago, it was the largest commitment received in the history of the Seminary and its first endowed professorship. Founded in 1842, Nashotah House is the oldest degree granting institution of higher education in the State of Wisconsin. The institution was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in January.

This gift is a part of the school’s 175th Anniversary Transformational Gift Initiative. The total raised to-date for this initiative is $7.25 million.

The Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ was founded in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 by the Very Reverend Dom Cornelis deRijk, OSB, a priest and Benedictine monk, with Reverend Canon Lewis Long. The Order is a Benedictine community guided by the balance of prayer, study, and work. The late Father deRijk, head of the order, received his Master of Divinity from Nashotah House in 1976.

“This generous gift-investment will honor the Order’s legacy of service, keeping it alive in-perpetuity. It will insure that, for generations to come, House seminarians will benefit from their exposure to the great Church leaders and mentors who will occupy the Professorship and present at the annual international conference,” stated The Very Reverend Steven A. Peay, Dean and President of Nashotah House.

“We are humbled and proud that the Servants of Christ and their place in Church history will be permanently tied to Nashotah House and its mission.”