Welcome to The New Seminary
Have you heard the calling to be a part of a positive change in the world? Do you wish to go deeper within to better understand life, death, and healing, as well as celebration and connection to the Divine?
Do you want to be able to meet people where they are spiritually?
As a professional institute for training Interfaith ministers, The New Seminary is committed to the integrity of the individual and the individual’s own spiritual search. We honor all paths leading toward a deepening of one’s relationship with the “Higher Power,” God, Goddess, Oneness, Spirit, etc…and with all of life. This mystery of life, its meaning and purpose, is the basis of study at The New Seminary.
Since 1979, we have been preparing graduates to perform a wide range of ministerial functions. Over 2500 graduates have passed through our Interfaith Seminary and into the world developing and designing worship services, performing various kinds of ceremonies and rites of passage, and offering spiritual counseling to those in need. Others of our graduates define their ministries with the phrase “Sacred Activism.” We are proud and humbled by all those who choose this Interfaith path. We hope that we may together make a difference in the world. This is a rewarding path that honors the divine in all.
We are privileged to be an NGO with the United Nations NY, and our students and graduates have participated in activities at the UN and around the world, in places such as Sierra Leone and Haiti, helping to bring loving, spiritual care to the people of these impoverished, shattered and war torn countries.
We invite you to join us in this powerful program and explore the many ways you can bring your gifts to the world.
–Rabbi Roger Ross & Rev. Deborah Steen Ross, Directors
“The New Seminary has opened my eyes to the beauty of the spiritual world that surrounds me, and brought me to a new and deeper understanding of the various faiths. My life has been altered profoundly, and I am a better person for having attended the Seminary…I would recommend it to anyone who is a seeker of the spirit….”
- Rev. M.R., Class of 2002
You’re Going To Be A What?
That was the first question my parents asked when I told them I was enrolling In the New Seminary and would be graduated and ordained as an interfaith minister, with Reverend before my name.
What’s a nice Jewish boy like me doing in a place like that? Isn’t my Judaism enough? Is my heritage so awful that I would turn my back on it? What had my parents done to deserve this? Was I going to convert?
It took a great deal of effort, time, and patience on my part before they finally began to understand. Everything flowed from the statement “Never instead of; always in addition to.”
No, Mom and Dad, I am not turning my back on my heritage. I am deepening my understanding and using it as a benchmark against which I can reflect the knowledge of other faiths. Yes, Mom and Dad, there were things I was taught as I was growing up that left me unsatisfied and vaguely aware that I wasn’t complete. Did being one of the Chosen People necessarily mean that no other people could reach out to God? Did being a Jew mean that I had to keep other faiths at arm’s length? Was I going to be contaminated by my interest and, heaven forbid, involvement in other religions?
The New Seminary as featured in “The Quiet Revolution”
Sacred Activism and The United Nations
By Rabbi Roger Ross
Andrew Harvey defines Sacred Activism this way: “Sacred Activism is a transforming force of compassion-in-action that is born of a fusion of deep spiritual knowledge, courage, love, and passion, with wise radical action in the world. The large-scale practice of Sacred Activism can become an essential force for preserving and healing the planet and its inhabitants.”
It is up to us to focus on, as Mr. Harvey says, “… inviting concerned people to take up the challenge of our contemporary crises in order to become inspired, effective, and practical agents of institutional and systemic change, in order to create peace and sustainability.”
When The New Seminary received its designation as an ECOSOC (Economic/Social) NGO (Non Governmental Organization) in 2002, we looked at many different organizations open to us as members, to determine where TNS could be of service while supporting the message of Interfaith and Sacred Activism. We chose the Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns. The CSVGC-NY is a committee made up of members of many different NGOs. While the purpose of the committee may be found on the website in the vision and mission statements, this part of the statement, we believe, sums up the direction the committee is taking and why it echoes the work of TNS:
