Our History
Centuries of history inform our path toward a faith-filled, inclusive future.
Bexley Hall
(1824 - 1999)
Bexley Hall was established in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase in conjunction with the establishment of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The theological school was later named Bexley Hall after the dedicated seminary building was constructed in 1839, in honor of Nicholas Vansittart, the 1st Baron Bexley, an early benefactor of Kenyon College.
The seminary disassociated with Kenyon in 1968 and moved to Rochester, N.Y., where it affiliated with Colgate Rochester Divinity School (now Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School). The 1839 seminary building in Gambier is still known as Bexley Hall and is now a student residence.
In 1999, after 30 years in New York state, Bexley Hall re-established an Ohio campus through a partnership with Trinity Lutheran Seminary of Columbus, in a suburb coincidentally named Bexley. In 2008, the Rochester campus was closed to focus efforts on the collaboration with Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
For years Bexley Hall and Trinity Lutheran Seminary were engaged in the most collaborative partnership in theological education between Episcopalians and Lutherans. For 17 years, each of the two seminaries contributed to a dynamic ecumenical partnership that produced hundreds of ordained and lay leaders prepared and credentialed to lead either or both Episcopal and Lutheran communities.
Bexley Hall was a member of the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus (TCGC), along with Trinity Lutheran Seminary, the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO), and the Pontifical College Josephinum. Students were free to take courses at any of the TCGC member schools.
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
(1858-2009)
The origins of Seabury-Western are in Illinois and in Minnesota. In 1858, James Lloyd Breck founded Bishop Seabury Mission in Faribault, Minn. to provide education from primary school through theological studies, which emerged from his missionary efforts among Native Americans in Minnesota. He envisioned what he called the “School of the Prophets” as the center of evangelism for the about-to-be organized Diocese of Minnesota.
The first Bishop of Minnesota, Henry Benjamin Whipple, quickly became a staunch advocate of the Dakota and Ojibwe people in his growing diocese and, in 1860, incorporated the Bishop Seabury Mission as three separate institutions: a school for boys, a school for girls, and the Bishop Seabury Divinity School for the training of clergy.
In 1883, under the leadership of Chicago’s Bishop William E. McLaren, the Western Theological Seminary was chartered and built in Chicago. Its first class was held in 1885. Western’s mission was to educate “fit persons in the Catholic Faith in its purity and integrity, as taught in the Holy Scriptures, held by the Primitive Church, summed up in the Creeds, and affirmed by the undisputed General Councils.” Western Seminary moved from Chicago to Evanston, Ill. in 1929 at the invitation of Northwestern University and the Garrett Biblical Institute.
Complementary concerns and common interests led the boards of Seabury and Western to combine resources. The merged Seabury-Western Theological Seminary opened its doors in Evanston on October 10, 1933. In 1994 the Seabury Institute was founded as a ministry of the seminary to create a partnership with parishes seeking to exercise innovative forms of leadership for mission.
In 2009, Seabury-Western made a stewardship decision: to sell its property to Northwestern University. The transaction, completed in July 2009, allowed the seminary to eliminate its debt, balance its budget, and position itself to realize a new mission as “Seabury Next,” located once again in Chicago.
Bexley Seabury Seminary
(2007-present)
Bexley Hall and Seabury-Western began dialogues 2007 that would eventually lead to federation of the two seminaries. Conversations exploring common ground were facilitated by a team from Auburn Seminary’s Center for the Study of Theological Education. Dialogue continued prayerfully, deliberately, with due consideration to how the two institutions might best serve the church
In February 2011, the two seminaries ratified a joint operating agreement. At historic meetings in March 2012, the boards of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and Bexley Hall each voted unanimously to federate and to elect the Rev. Roger A. Ferlo, PhD, DD, as president. President Ferlo was inaugurated in April 2013 at a festival Eucharist in the chapel of Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis.
Bexley Seabury, now with campuses in both Ohio and Illinois, was accredited as a single institution by the Association of Theological Schools in 2015. In July, 2016, following the recommendation of its Board of Directors’ Beyond Walls Task Force, the seminary consolidated its operations and programs in Chicago on the campus of Chicago Theological Seminary, with the approval of the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Association of Theological Schools.
In May 2026, the seminary called the Very Rev. Dr. Mark C. Lee as its next dean and president. Dr. Lee previously served as the Dean of the Graduate School at the U.S. Army Institute for Religious Leadership, leading four academic schools, three Clinical Pastoral Education centers, and faculty across six locations nationwide. He holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, a Doctor of Ministry from Erskine Theological Seminary, an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an MBA and BS from the University of Southern California. A Board-Certified Chaplain and Certified Educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, his scholarship explores moral injury, trauma-informed ministry, and post-traumatic growth.
Under Dr. Lee’s leadership the seminary will continue to be a “seminary beyond walls,” expanding our call to be a “four order seminary” for bishops, priests, deacons, and laypeople. We seek to be an intentionally inclusive space that holds our legacy while envisioning a more forward-thinking future.
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