Adapted from Trinity School for Ministry
The Rev. Martha Giltinan died on the morning of December 12 at Massachusetts General Hospital after a yearlong battle with leukemia. She was Trinity’s assistant professor of pastoral theology director of its Mentored Ministry Program.
Giltinan, born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1957, was a graduate of Wheaton College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Virginia Theological Seminary, and completed her DMin at Trinity. She joined Trinity’s faculty in 2005.
She was a priest in the Anglican Church of North America and served on its Liturgy and Common Worship Task Force, which developed Texts for Common Prayer. Before her work at Trinity, she served in parish ministry in the Boston area for nearly 20 years.
“Martha has been a dear friend and a much-loved colleague,” said the Very Rev. Justyn Terry, Trinity’s dean and president. “She was a great pastor and mentor to many of our students over the years, and she will be deeply missed by the whole Trinity community.”
Martha is survived by her mother, Carter; and brothers Thomas A., William, and Alexander. Her father, Alexander, preceded her in death.
In describing her work, Professor Giltinan wrote on Trinity’s website:
One of the privileges of coming away to seminary is the opportunity to drink from the well of a deep and sustaining tradition so that we in turn might pass it on to others. Trinity professors and mentors both model and bear witness to this tradition. Lesslie Newbigin says, “All efforts to know must begin with something given.” For the Christian, the Scriptures and the God who reveals himself in Jesus are that “given.” Our tradition is neither static nor merely rational — it involves us in the risk of faith. For us and for our students, “there can be no knowledge without personal commitment” (Newbigin again). We must believe in order to come to know. We come alongside of others to be reliable witnesses to both the truth revealed in the tradition and the truth lived in ministry. And this is an ongoing and dynamic process of gradual integration, a process that is going on not only in me as a professor, but also, we hope, in our students.