The Communications Office of the Seminary sent out this letter and has given approval for us to reprint it here.

Dear Friends,

As our Board of Trustees announced a few days ago, I will be transitioning from my post as President of Covenant Seminary as of June 1, 2012, to the position of Chancellor. I will assume the Chancellor responsibilities following my current sabbatical.

Though this move may come as a surprise to some, such a transition has been part of our discussions for several years as the Board, the President’s Cabinet, and I sought to establish a strategic vision for the future of the Seminary’s leadership. As the Board has worked to discern the next phase in the development of the Seminary’s mission, this seemed an appropriate time for the transition to occur.

My wife, Kathy, and I have considered it a great privilege to serve the Covenant Seminary family, the PCA, and Christ’s body by helping to prepare future church leaders to proclaim the gospel of grace. We now give special thanks to our God for a Board that has provided this opportunity to direct our energies to the areas of service we most treasure.

I am excited by the opportunity to focus my time on serving as an ambassador for the mission and ministry of Covenant Seminary. As Chancellor, I will continue to be available as a consultant for future Seminary leaders, teach homiletics courses, travel and speak on behalf of the Seminary, and assist in building and nurturing relationships with our many alumni, donors, friends, and other faithful supporters.

As I look back on nearly three decades of service with Covenant Seminary, first as a faculty member, then in various administrative roles, and finally as President—not to mention my time as a student here before that—I am struck by how much of my life and ministry, and that of my family as well, has revolved around and been influenced by the godly people and values of this amazing institution.

Kathy and I are profoundly grateful for the many friends in the Seminary community, past and present, who have made it such a joy to live and serve here. We are grateful to have been able to raise our children in a community so steeped in the gospel of grace and so rich with Christ-like love. We are grateful as well for the many ways in which the Lord has blessed the institution during our time here, and how he has grown it so beautifully—through the labors of many faithful and dedicated servants—into a place of increasingly expanding influence for the gospel.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, the wise Preacher reminds us: To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Eccl. 3:1 kjv). As one season in the life of Covenant Seminary draws to a close and a new one begins, please pray with me for the Lord’s continued blessing on an institution that has been such a powerfully transforming part of my own life, and of the lives of so many others who have lived, studied, taught, worked, and gone forth from here to minister God’s Word.

Pray for wisdom and discernment for the Seminary’s leaders during this time of transition, especially Dr. Mark Dalbey as he assumes the role of Interim President, and the search committee our Board has established to seek the institution’s next President. May they—and we—keep our eyes and hearts fixed always on the One who leads and guides us, and may his boundless loving-kindness spur us on to run the race before us with perseverance and with hope.

In his service,
Bryan Chapell

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