09/30/2026
Every now and then I find myself leafing through the old GTS matriculation book. One of the things you notice is how much the date of our entrance ceremony shifted across the calendar over the years before settling - relatively recently, at least for a 209-year-old institution - on or around the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.
For much of recent GTS history, matriculation belonged to Michaelmas. And for at least the first eight years I served at General, we observed the feast on a Thursday - which also had the happy consequence of giving exuberant seminarians a Friday to recover after a night of celebration.
Our hybrid program has given matriculation a new home: the second Sunday of August, at the first Solemn Evensong of the incoming class’s first intensive at GTS. A glorious introduction to our common life, if you ask me.
But because we are once again in the vicinity of St. Michael and All Angels, I wanted to wish a happy matriculation anniversary - and a Michaelmas blessing - to all our alumni.
And tonight, in something of the spirit of the old ways of GTS, Buck McDaniel has organized a beautiful Choral Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at St. John’s in the Village. I am honored to preach and officiate, and Tommy Dillon is leading the Benediction.
The old matriculation book will remain locked in my office tonight, but I find myself feeling both thankful and a little nostalgic. I think this past August may have been my eleventh GTS matriculation.
Tonight we will pray for our alumni, for our current students, for those now in the admissions process, and for those whose discernment is still hidden in the mind of God.
In this season of Michaelmas, may the holy angels guard you; may God give you courage for the work to which you have been called; and may you know, wherever your ministry and life have carried you, that you remain part of the prayers and common life of this old seminary.
Happy Michaelmas and happy matriculation anniversary.
Dean DeLashmutt
