The Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church is an autonomous organization affiliated with the national church. It was founded in 1940 as an informal group of established scholars, lay Episcopalians who wished through their expertise to be of service to the church as well as to each other. The members gathered annually for brief multidisciplinary presentations and seminar discussions.

Included among the early members of the Guild were poet W. H. Auden; philosophers Howard Roelofs, Henry Veatch, and Richard Hocking; Stringfellow Barr and Ursula Niebuhr in theology; and Cleanth Brooks, Frederick Pottle, and Hoxie Fairchild in literary studies. In those early years the membership was concentrated in the Northeast. Today the Guild has a nationwide enrollment of scholars, representing a wide range of academic and artistic disciplines. (A roster of current members may be found here.)

The annual meeting is held in October or November. For many years the Guild enjoyed the hospitality of the General Theological Seminary in New York City. At the present time, locations vary from year to year. Recent venues include the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the retreat center at the Community of the Transfiguration in Cincinnati, Ohio. Activities at the annual meeting include talks by members presenting aspects of their work in various disciplines that are relevant to the broad interests of the Guild, followed by ample discussion; worship; and abundant conversation and fellowship. Details on some recent programs may be found here. For information on sites scheduled or under consideration for future meetings, please click on “Meetings” in the navigation bar.

Following several months of informal conversations among the presidents of Episcopal Church-related colleges and other church leaders, an organizing meeting was held in February 1940 to discuss the disconnect between intellectual and spiritual life in academia. Comments from the fifteen scholars present were shaped into a statement of Basic Objectives, and additional members were added at a second meeting later that year, after which the group met annually and continued to grow.

The Guild’s records are preserved in the national church’s archives at the Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas.