海角大神

Turmoil engulfed the Episcopal Church鈥檚 oldest seminary this week after its board of trustees dismissed nearly all of its full-time faculty for revolting against the leadership of the 200-year-old institution鈥檚 new dean.

For the past two weeks, eight of 10 full-time faculty members at General Theological Seminary in Manhattan had told the trustees that they could no longer work with the Very Rev. Kurt Dunkle, who was appointed as the seminary鈥檚 dean and president last May.

From the start, the faculty alleged in a Sept.17 letter to the board, Reverend Dunkle had brought the seminary community 鈥渄eep despondency, anxiety, hostility, fear, and retaliation,鈥� including a number of abrasive sexist and racist remarks to faculty and students.

According to the faculty鈥檚 letter, Dunkle had publicly compared the methods of theological education to 鈥渓ooking up women鈥檚 skirts,鈥� referred to Asians as 鈥渟lanty-eyed,鈥� and remarked that聽"black people can do such interesting things with their hair." He also聽insisted that General should not be a 鈥済ay seminary鈥� but emphasize 鈥渘ormal people.鈥澛�

The uproar comes as the flagship Episcopal seminary, which is one of 10 affiliated with the 2 million-member denomination and the only to be directly run by the national church, has struggled enormously in recent years.

In 2010, it sold valuable property it owned in downtown Manhattan鈥檚 Chelsea neighborhood in order to stave off bankruptcy from its $40 million debt, and it brought in Dunkle, a former attorney in Florida, to lead the school鈥檚 evolving new direction.

The board responded to the faculty鈥檚 initial complaints by hiring an outside law firm to investigate the allegations. But the faculty insisted that the work environment had become so hostile at the seminary that a working relationship with Dunkle was no longer possible. So last Friday, the eight faculty members walked off the job and told the trustees they would form a union.

The trustees said their letter amounted to resignations, however, and on Tuesday,聽they announced they had accepted these with 鈥渉eavy hearts.鈥� But they also said they would meet with any 鈥渇ormer faculty member鈥� about reconsidering their resignations.

On Wednesday, however, faculty member Andrew Irving, a professor of church history, wrote to the student body, insisting the professors who walked out last week never suggested they would resign.

鈥淲e wish to underline that we have not resigned,鈥� Professor Irving wrote, suggesting the faculty was now seeking legal counsel. 鈥淥ur letters did not say that we would resign. We requested meetings with the Board.鈥�

One of the board members, the Rev. Ellen Tillotson, an Episcopal priest in Connecticut, felt the faculty had been sitting on their complaints and planning a strategy to, in effect, force the trustee鈥檚 hand with a walkout and new union.

鈥淲hen offered such an ultimatum, what were we to do? No, they never used the word 鈥榬esign,鈥欌�� Reverend Tillotson said. 鈥淏ut over and over they said they were unable to continue to do their jobs unless we met unmeetable conditions.鈥�

The head of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, attended morning prayer at General鈥檚 chapel on Wednesday, joining Dunkle and about 50 students as the controversy began to hit headlines.

鈥淲e are standing in the middle of chaos,鈥� said seminarian Nancy Hennessey during the assembly, according to The Associated Press. 鈥淏ut we need to stand here, vulnerable and open and calm.鈥�