Berkeley Divinity School

The seminary was founded by John Williams, then coadjutor bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, as a mediating alternative between the Anglo-Catholic–leaning General Theological Seminary in New York and the Evangelical-leaning Virginia Theological Seminary. The name of the seminary alludes to the vision of philosopher and bishop George Berkeley who a century earlier had planned a seminary in the western hemisphere; this use of his name for an educational institution precedes its association with California by some decades.

Williams was also President of Trinity College in Hartford, and after a brief period where he oversaw instruction as part of the College, the school began independent life in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1854. Williams continued as Dean while succeeding as diocesan Bishop, until his death in 1899. Berkeley moved to New Haven in 1928, during the deanship of noted liturgical scholar William Palmer Ladd, to take advantage of the resources of Yale University.

In 1971, a new agreement between Yale and Berkeley resulted in a closer affiliation; since then all students of Berkeley Divinity School have been also students of Yale Divinity School and take a Yale degree. Approximately one third of Yale Divinity School's students undertaking the master's degree in divinity are members of Berkeley. Thus, Berkeley operates as a denominational seminary within an ecumenical divinity school. Students graduating from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale earn a Diploma in Anglican Studies from Berkeley as well as their Yale degree, certifying that they have received education specific to preparation for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church.

Berkeley's offices and programs are centered with those of Yale Divinity School on the Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, although Berkeley also maintains a separate center for worship and some programs nearby. Its former New Haven campus is now the site of Pauli Murray College, one of the newer residential colleges of Yale University, named for an Episcopal priest and activist.

• John Williams (1854–1899)
• John Binney (1899–1908)
• Samuel Hart (1908–1917)
• William Palmer Ladd (1917–1941)
• Lawrence Rose (1942–1947)
• Percy Linwood Urban (1947–57)
• Richard Hooker Wilmer, Jr (1957–1969)
• J. C. Michael Allen (1970–1976)
• Charles Halsey ("Kelly") Clark (1977–1982)
• James E. Annand (1982–1991)
• Philip W. Turner III (1991–1998)
• R. William Franklin (1998–2001)
• Joseph H. Britton (2003–2014)
• Andrew McGowan (2014–present)[1]

• Charles Minnigerode Beckwith, fourth Bishop of Alabama
• Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest, preacher and theologian
• Robert W. Castle (1929–2012), Episcopal priest, activist and actor (Philadelphia, Beloved, Rachel Getting Married).[2]
• Michael Curry, (born 1953), presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church
• Charles Fulton (born 1938), priest, revivalist
• Alfred Harding (1852–1923), bishop of Washington
• Frederick Joseph Kinsman (1868-1944), bishop of Delaware, subsequently converted to Roman Catholicism
• George E. Lounsbury (1838-1904), governor of Connecticut
• Victoria Matthews (born 1954), bishop of Edmonton and of Christchurch
• Leonel Mitchell (1930-2012), liturgist
• William Woodruff Niles (1832-1914), bishop of New Hampshire
• Sidney Catlin Partridge (1857-1930), bishop of Kyoto, bishop of West Missouri
• Harry Boone Porter (1923–1999), journalist, liturgist and environmentalist
• Robert Prichard, church historian
• Walter Righter (1923–2011), bishop of Iowa
• Calvin Schofield, Jr. (born 1933), bishop of Southeast Florida
• Massey H. Shepherd, liturgist, architect of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church
• Kirk Stevan Smith, bishop of Arizona
• Elisha Smith Thomas, second bishop of Kansas
• Lemuel H. Wells (1841–1936), bishop of Spokane
• Henry S. Whitehead (1882–1932), priest, author of horror fiction and fantasy
• Robert Shaw Sturgis Whitman (1915–2010), priest, author

• Official website