Nashotah House receives gift for endowed professorship

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The Very Reverend Dom Cornelius deRijk The Very Reverend Dom Cornelius deRijk
A gift from the Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ will fund a professorship and an annual conference.

Nashotah House Theological Seminary has received a $3.5 million commitment from the Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ as a gift to carry on the Order’s legacy. The endowed fund will be used to support the St. Benedict Servants of Christ Professorship in Ascetical Theology and Monastic Studies and an annual international conference, also named for the order, on religious life and Anglicanism.


The Order was founded in 1968 by The Very Reverend Dom Cornelis deRijk, OSB, a Priest and Benedictine Monk, with The Reverend Canon Lewis Long in Phoenix, Arizona. The Priory of the Servants of Christ is a Benedictine community guided by the balance of prayer, study, and work. Father deRijk, the head of the order and a graduate of Nashotah House, died on September 24 of this year.

As membership in the Order declined, it became clear to Father deRijk that the Order needed to leave a legacy in a way that would appropriately recognize and carry on the Benedictine values that were at its core. “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 conference,” according to The Very Reverend Steven A. Peay, dean and president of Nashotah House.


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