Frequently Asked Questions

A:  Forming Leaders at the Frontier is Seminary of the Southwest’s (Southwest) campaign to strengthen and expand our mission to form leaders who participate in the mission of God at the electric edge where the gospel meets culture. Southwest will build instructional, collaborative and contemplative spaces to support its essential leading role in the formation of Christian leaders for the church, counselors and chaplains for the world.

A:  The campaign goal is to raise at least $20,000,000 to upgrade our library and classroom facilities (the Learning Complex), increase scholarship endowment, and ensure our financial strength in order to equip our students to fulfill God’s mission.

A:  Through our Campus Master Plan our engineering partners determined the existing Learning Complex buildings were structurally sound. Both buildings will be gutted and all construction will take place within their existing footprint.

A: Serving students from across The Episcopal Church through residential and local formation, Southwest is preparing priests, mental health counselors, chaplains, and missional leaders to serve the church and heal the world. Our graduates and our faculty make critical contributions to imagining and resourcing the church of the future.

Your gift, of any amount, will make a significant impact for reaching the campaign goal and in supporting these future leaders.

A: Southwest’s Annual Fund support operating needs and scholarships. Gifts to the capital campaign are above and beyond your Annual Fund support and will enhance our essential leading role in the formation of Christian leaders for the church, counselors and chaplains for the world. 

A:  Gifts from parishes can be made in a variety of ways, including parish affiliated foundations or endowments, special funds managed by the Rector, or through special plate offerings. Each parish is unique, and we will be happy to visit with you about the best options for yours. Please contact Donna Emery at Donna.Emery@ssw.edu.

A:  We invite you to consider this significant investment beyond what you could make as a one-time gift. The success of the campaign rests largely on pledges that are payable over up to 3 years. Pledges enable you to donate more than would otherwise be possible in one-time gifts. 

A:  We understand that this is a challenging time for many of our friends and are grateful that you are able to consider a gift.  Please remember that the campaign encourages pledges which can be structured for up to three-year period.  You can schedule to begin your pledge this year or next, and you can consider making smaller payments the first few years with larger payments at the end of an up-to a three-year period.

A:  No. However, many donors actually prefer to begin payments on their pledges immediately with a ten percent or more initial payment. Initial payments also help us to begin our projects sooner. 

A: The library itself will operate from another location on campus that will provide a point of pick-up for borrowed materials, a printer and scanner, and study space. The exact location has not been determined. The Old Classroom Building is not used regularly for classes due to limitations of the outdated spaces. While it is being renovated, the seminary will be able to accommodate all in-person classes using other buildings on campus, primarily the McDonald Classroom building.

A: When the Booher Library and adjoining classroom building close for renovation, the bulk of the library’s collections will be moved to an off-site, local storage facility appropriate for the storage of the books in our collection. Several thousand items will be kept on campus for use throughout the closure. Those items will be selected based on their frequency of use and/or their special value. The library has been bolstering its electronic resources for the past several years and will be providing access to many thousands of ebooks and journal articles. For example, here is a link to all the course text books being provided by the library as ebooks this semester. The Episcopal Church is discerning a new location for the Archives of the Episcopal Church.