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Jun 02, 2022

VTS Grads Bring Their Gifts to the Diocese of Texas


From right to left: The Rev. (Deacon) Kurt Unangst, Andrew Lazo, Jeremy Bradley, the Rev. Dr. Jerald Hyche, Joy Miller, the Rev. (Deacon) Joanna Unangst
 

The Diocese of Texas is getting excited to welcome the new grads of Virginia Theological Seminary!

Kurt and Joanna Unangst are joining us from the diocese from Diocese of Western Michigan. On the other hand, Andrew Lazo, Joy Miller, and Jeremy Bradley were all sent from the Diocese of Texas to VTS. All of them were called to the ordained ministry.  

St. James the Apostle, Rector, Receives Doctor of Ministry Degree from Virginia Theological Seminary

The Rev. Dr. Jerald W. Hyche, rector of St. James the Apostle, Conroe, and his wife, Colleen, are flanked by their three daughters, from left: Melanie of Austin,
and Caroline and Suzannah of New York City. It was the first time the Hyches had returned as a family to the seminary in Alexandria, Va., in 18 years,
when Jerald graduated with his Master’s of Divinity in 2004.

After four years of study — culminating in an action-research project focusing on how his parish endured the pandemic — the Rev. Jerald Hyche received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Virginia Theological Seminary on May 12. Rector of St. James the Apostle, Conroe, Texas, for 12 years. Jerald entered VTS' doctoral program in 2018 with an idea for an eventual thesis related to the growth of his parish (membership had doubled in the previous decade), but the pandemic quashed those plans.

With in-person worship suspended and the church campus closed for almost a year, Jerald pivoted his project to focus on the pandemic’s effect on the parish — and whether church leadership could use “The Great Pause” to reassess the church's purpose and future. The result was a thesis titled: “The 4M Project: Reassessing a Parish’s Mission, Ministry, Membership and Management in the Midst of a Pandemic.”

As one seminary faculty member noted, “Jerald’s paper is among the first literary contributions to the emerging conversation about how the pandemic has changed everything about doing church.”

Congratulations to all!