seminary & church

A year ago, as they formulated the long-range strategic plan for Austin Seminary, our trustees saw the need to take a closer look at our mission statement (printed on page 21). In the process, they sought to affirm the enduring values at the core of our institutional identity and to discern the need for language that could aptly describe our movement toward a more diverse and inclusive community of teaching and learning.

At one point during the deliberation, a question was raised about the origin of the word “winsome” as the emblematic descriptor of our community’s character. As one might expect, the archeological search for origins was contingent—for once you have mined your memory for the first instance when you heard the echoes of a narrative, you discover that someone else has excavated deeper and found another layer, perhaps a different telling of the same story.

It was only months later, after the final version of the mission statement was approved, that I found—while reviewing the history of long-serving trustee and friend of the Seminary Bruce Herlin upon his passing—an illuminating note in this regard. In his letter to the board upon his retirement, as he reflected on his twenty-seven years of uninterrupted service to the Seminary, Herlin wrote, “the creation of the mission statement, in a meeting in the offices of Sanger Harris in Dallas, was a marvelous product of—of all things—a committee. At what was thought to be the end, Clarence Frierson said, ‘It seems to lack something,’ and added the word ‘winsome,’ making the phrase one that everyone remembers.”

Whether this settles the origins debate until another layer is uncovered is certainly beyond the point. What is evident in these narratives, and the avid search for origins, is the shared understanding that while other institutions can claim the value of community formation, only Austin Seminary can add distinctiveness to that claim by defining this community as a winsome one— to the point of being exemplary at being so!

The fact that we are unable to grasp a concise definition of “winsomeness” gives the word its theological credence. Theological language is never content with closure but thrives in the mystery of things that are beyond our grasp and that can potentially open our minds to new understandings of God’s ongoing givenness. The Seminary’s winsomeness is a gift that we continue to unwrap through relationships and experiences of honest and, at times, fragile conviviality. This realization keeps its members intentionally focused, fully engaged, and missionally committed to communal living—for there is something that remains a mystery among us that awaits disclosure. Like a child playing hide and seek, the community lures you to search for places and moments where it can be found, so that it can jump in front of us—in surprising ways—when most needed. It is in that sacred playfulness that we are found to be winsome.

Faithfully yours,

José R. Irizarry, President

President’s Schedule

January 8-10, 2024 – Gathering of PC(USA) presidents, academic deans, and board chairs, Decatur, Georgia

January 22-24 – Host, MidWinter Lectures, Austin, Texas

February 11 – Teach, First Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas

March 22 – Attend, Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest Annual Meeting, Galveston, Texas

April 14 – Preach, St. Philip Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas

April 25 – Host, Fundraising Luncheon, Houston, Texas