Advancing the Mission

Slaggie ’61 Makes Major Gift for Monastery Renovation The renovation of the Saint John’s Abbey residential facilities has received a big boost from Steve Slaggie ’61 and his wife, Barbara. The Slaggies recently made a second gift of $500,000 to the abbey for upgrades to the monastic living spaces in the Quadrangle and the Breuer residence located behind the abbey church. The abbey seeks to raise $8 million for the renovation of the Breuer Residence, the main monastic residence for the monks, which includes repair and replacement of the original plumbing, electrical, mechanical, air-handling and fire-safety systems as well as replacement of all bathroom fixtures. In addition, the Breuer Residence will receive energy-efficient windows and a new and enlarged elevator to better accommodate the needs of elderly monks. “We are deeply grateful to Steve and Barbara Slaggie for their continued generosity to Saint John’s Abbey,” comments Abbot John Klassen, OSB. “These improvements, once fully funded, will result in a much-needed upgrade of the energy efficiency of the buildings and a reduction of maintenance costs. Just as important, it makes the monastery more comfortable for our monks and more inviting to novices.”

HMML Awarded Grant for Virtual HMML The resources of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) will soon be available online, thanks to a generous grant from the Institute for Museum & Library Services (IMLS) for vHMML or virtual HMML. vHMML will help provide access to HMML’s photographic archive of more than 125,000 manuscripts. In addition, it will feature online tutorials in paleography and manuscript studies. Its most innovative feature will be the Scriptorium, an online collaborative workspace allowing scholars to study, edit and publish texts found only in manuscripts. It will also feature a lexicon of manuscript-related terminology in several languages, a library of key reference works, and the Folio Collection, an annotated album of illustrative manuscript images.

School of Theology Seminary Receives Youth Programs Grant •

Saint John’s School of Theology•Seminary has received a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to assist in the coordination of the Theological Programs for High School Youth initiative. The primary aim of the grant is to provide ongoing support for youth theology programs by establishing and sustaining a network composed of youth theology program leaders. A secondary aim is to capture and share key insights from youth theology programs with wider audiences. Since 2000, the School of Theology•Seminary’s Youth in Theology and Ministry program (YTM) has hosted 388 high school students for its summer program. Research shows that 20 percent of its participants go on to major or minor in theology. More than 90 percent consider vocations in church-related ministry, including religious life or ordination.

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