Berkeley Divinity School at Yale

"Matthew’s Gospel, like any story worth telling, has a structure. There are discoveries, developments and crises, and then outcomes or resolutions. Few Gospel passages are timeless pictures of unchanging truth (despite the proverbial suggestions otherwise); they have a context that needs to be understood. Reading a particular Gospel through the liturgical year can help, although the interruptions of the Lent/Easter cycle mean that we are now picking Matthew’s narrative up after a long break, and some effort is required to re-establish just where we are, and where Jesus is, in the story. In this passage we find Jesus’ work at a key turning point."

Read the rest of Dean McGowan's commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23) here:

The Exclusive, Expanding Mission of Jesus Proper 6/3rd after Pentecost, Year A 2026; Matt 9:35-10:8(9-23)

Berkeley at Yale showed up in person and online to celebrate the ordination of classmate Robin Brown ‘26 to the diaconate. The ordination was held in the Diocese of Southern Virginia at Christ & St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. 🕊️❤️

"In the second pair of stories, found interwoven in all three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus encounters two women whose lives are impacted by illness and death, and he heals and frees both. These are also situations where ritual purity is central, and where permanent exclusion seems otherwise to be the fate of the characters. The body of the girl whose healing bookends the episode constitutes both an invitation for Jesus to exercise “mercy” but also a threat to his purity (and hence access to sacrificial worship), since contact with a co**se rendered impure. This was true even though such contact might be absolutely necessary as a matter of family or charitable duty—a reminder that impurity is not the same as exclusion. In Matthew’s version of the story, this is accentuated by the clarification that she is actually dead, whereas in Mark’s and Luke’s accounts she is at risk of dying.

The woman with the hemorrhage was also ritually compromised, because while menstrual bleeding was a temporary (and again, usually normal or necessary) impediment to worship, what was otherwise a periodic status had become permanent. The bleeding woman was not, however, an outcast—the consequences of her hemorrhage were not socially profound— but her physical suffering was mirrored in a form of specifically ritual or religious exclusion."

Read the rest of Dean McGowan's thoughts on readings for Proper 5 Year A; Hos 5:15-6:6, Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26 here:

Mercy, Not Sacrifice: Jesus, Purity, and Hope Proper 5 Year A; Hos 5:15-6:6, Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26.

Berkeley at Yale celebrates the ordination of Alden Fossett ‘26 and Nelson Pike ‘26 to the diaconate! A cloud of witnesses, in-person, online, and beyond, gathered around Alden and Nelson at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on Saturday.

Dean-Elect of Berkeley at Yale, The Rev’d Dr. Gabrielle Thomas, is the feature story on The Living Church website today!

Read about her journey to becoming the first woman to step into the role of Dean of Berkeley at Yale. Link to the article below or from the IG profile.

https://livingchurch.org/news/news-episcopal-church/meet-berkeley-at-yales-next-dean/

“Matthew’s Gospel has emphasized discipleship, and even here at the end Jesus acts as teacher instructing his followers; yet the idea that disciples should be ‘of all nations’ is new. Through this Gospel, Matthew has emphasized Jesus’ mission to Israel itself. In Jesus’ teaching, fidelity to the law of Moses has been upheld. Any sense of a scope for his work that went beyond Israel has only been hinted at. This new development in the plot is also crucial to understanding what had and had not happened before, not least around ethnicity and religious identity. Some readers get tripped up (e.g.) by an apparent lack of inclusivity on Jesus’s part, prior to cross and resurrection, such as the (commonly misread) story of his interactions with a Gentile woman (15:22-28). Her bravery now means even more, since it was an anticipation of that new community that has now become possible because he has suffered and returned. This Gospel has not been just a set of isolated stories, but a single story in which things have changed.”

Read the rest of Dean McGowan’s commentary on Matthew 28:16-20 here:

Matthew's End: Discipleship, Baptism, and Trinity Trinity Sunday, Year A, 2026. Matthew 28:16-20.

Congratulations 🎉 to the Berkeley Divinity School Class of 2026!

A Commencement Evensong was held in Marquand Chapel, together with the conferral of diplomas and certificates and the awarding of prizes, followed by a reception at the Berkeley Center.

Five Berkeley MDiv seniors presented their thesis research to friends, students, and colleagues on the back porch of the Berkeley Center. 👏👏

Robin Brown, “White Silence as Formation in Episcopal and Anglican Contexts”

Logan Crews, “New World, Old Adam: The Baptismal Theology of the Virginia Colony”

Alden Fossett, “The Course of Empire Causes Us Much Grief: Imperialism, Slavery, and Genocide in the Theological Education of Berkeley Divinity School, the Episcopal School at Yale”

Jacob Stewart, “Muhlenberg’s Sermons & The Work of the Church”

Sully Hart, “Divine Security: An Exploration of Christian Liturgy Through the Lens of Attachment Theory”

All are welcome to join the next Graduate Town Hall this Thursday, May 14, from 5pm-6pm Eastern on Zoom.

The Most Rev’d Sean Rowe ‘24 DDHon, will be interviewed by The Rev’d Dr. Andy Barnett ’12 MDiv, President of the Graduate Network.

There is no need to register ahead of time. The Town Hall Zoom Link is located on the Graduate Network homepage: https://berkeleydivinity.yale.edu/connect/graduate-network-town-halls