March 19, 2020:  Update from Wesley President David McAllister-Wilson

Wesley Theological Seminary will hold the remainder of the spring semester courses online.  All offices are on the job at a distance.  We are continuing to maintain room and board for our many students for whom this campus is home.  I am pleased to report we are aware of no one in the Wesley community who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.  We are taking these steps both to continue to help our students stay healthy and to reduce community transmission in our neighborhood and in Washington, DC.  I am grateful to the faculty and staff who working quickly and creatively to make all this happen.  I am sorry to report that the 2020 Commencement service, scheduled for May 11, has been postponed.  We will find another time to recognize the class of 2020. 

These days are counterintuitive for Christians who instinctively gather and reach out in crisis. For example, after 9/11, attendance at worship surged and people volunteered for public service in large numbers.  But now, churches are empty and the way we serve the community is to stay home.  But our faith includes a recognition of the power of prayer and the wisdom and courage gained in the wilderness and in exile. 

In the meantime, we believe the Holy Spirit is not constrained and finds a way to work through us.  My niece, Emily, is in graduate school in Barcelona, Spain.  (Ironically, she is studying international security).  The city is in virtual lockdown.  She reports that every morning at 8:00 p.m. everyone goes out on their balconies or opens their windows and claps their hands demonstrating their resilience and solidarity.  A distance Vespers liturgy. I know the extended Wesley community, including our alumni, are looking for ways to do the same in communities they serve across the world.  And, those of us with financial resources can help support those who will not have a paycheck for weeks and maybe months. 

I think we will emerge with a yearning for physical community and congregational worship.  And a renewed appreciation for character in our leaders.  And belief in science.  And a reminder of our interconnectedness through institutions ranging from public health, to schools, to the marketing supply chain that makes simple things like toilet paper available.  Also, a celebration of the inescapably global interdependence of our world as we in the United States are learning from other nations, such as China and South Korea, how to better deal with this kind of threat to the common well-being.   

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  (Hebrews 12:1).

David McAllister-Wilson

President, Wesley Theological Seminary

March 13, 2020: Update from Wesley President David McAllister-Wilson

I want to report on the steps Wesley Theological Seminary is taking to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. 

Classes were cancelled March 12 and 13 and, beginning Monday, March 16, all classes will be online until further notice.  All essential services on campus will remain open with only those staff members necessary.  All others will be working from home.  All employees will continue to receive their wages. 

Offices and classrooms are being sanitized.  Everyone is being reminded, repeatedly, of the measures recommended by the Center for Disease Control to control the spread of the virus.  

The administration is not aware of anyone on the Wesley campus who has been exposed directly, no one who has tested positively, and no one who has symptoms.  We are taking these measures in an abundance of caution because we have a responsibility for the health and safety of the seminary community.  And because we have a responsibility to others to reduce the chances of community transmission in the greater Washington area.     

These days have caused me to remember Wesley on 9/11.  It is very different.  For one thing, there are very practical steps we can take this time.  But just as in those days, the Wesley faculty and staff are responding with calm, compassion and professionalism.  Faculty were already prepared to teach online, and they are reworking their classes now to be ready by next week, and the staff is working hard to see that the residential students have all they need.  I am very grateful to these dedicated people. 

And, once again, the Christian community is called to lead.  One of our professors, Kendall Soulen, was driving by the Pentagon as the plane passed over his car and crashed into the building.  He arrived on campus stunned.  And then set about to write about the problem of evil – why bad things happen.  He listed a number of possible philosophical answers to that problem.  But he concluded that the Christian faith is really focused on what we do about evil.  Another president in Washington said once, “All we have to fear, is fear itself.”  Wesley, its staff and students and alumni are in the business of countering fear offering comfort and hope in obedience to Jesus’ commandment to love God and neighbor. 

David McAllister-Wilson

President, Wesley Theological Seminary