Adapted from a Nashotah House announcement
Nashotah House Theological Seminary has received a $3.5 million commitment from the Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ to carry on the order’s legacy.
An endowed fund will support the St. Benedict Servants of Christ Professorship in Ascetical Theology and Monastic Studies and an annual international conference on religious life and Anglicanism named for the order.
The Very Rev. Dom Cornelis deRijk, a priest and Benedictine monk, and the Rev. Canon Lewis Long founded the order in Phoenix in 1968. The Priory of the Servants of Christ is a Benedictine community guided by the balance of prayer, study, and work. DeRijk completed received a Master of Divinity degree from Nashotah House in 1976. He died unexpectedly on Sept. 24 of this year.
As membership diminished, it became clear to deRijk that the order needed to leave a legacy that would recognize and carry on the Benedictine values at its core.
“The Benedictine way of spirituality is a cornerstone of the Nashotah House ethos,” said the Very Rev. Steven A. Peay, dean and president of Nashotah House. “As we practice the Benedictine disciplines of work, study, and prayer together, the members of our community grow in faith, hope, and a love beyond words. This generous gift-investment will honor the order’s legacy of service, keeping it alive in perpetuity.”
