The Very Reverend Canon Robert S. Munday, Ph.D.
Research Professor of Theology and Missions
18th Dean and President
BA, Southern Illinois University
MDiv, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary
MLS, Vanderbilt University
PhD, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary
The Very Rev’d Canon Robert S. Munday currently serves as Research Professor of Theology and Mission, having served as Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary from 2001 to 2011. Dean Munday came to Nashotah from the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania where he served as Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean for Library and Information Services. During his 15 years on the faculty at Trinity, he also served as Associate Dean for Administration and Associate Dean for Planning and Policy.
Dean Munday has more than 30 years of experience in seminary teaching and administration and is noted for providing pastoral care and spiritual direction to seminarians. An expert in internet and information technology, Dean Munday was instrumental in the development of Trinity’s distance education program. He was liaison to the architects for the construction of three new buildings on Trinity’s campus, and he personally planned the construction of a $3.2 million Library and Academic Center.
While in the Pittsburgh area, Dean Munday served as an assisting priest at the Church of the Ascension, near the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University campuses, as well as serving the congregations of St. Paul’s, Monongahela, and All Saints, Aliquippa. He has also been active in the affairs of the wider church as a five-time Deputy from the Diocese of Quincy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church and a member of various committees responsible for such areas of church life as ministry development and social and urban affairs. Reflecting Dean Munday’s passion for world missions, he served on the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on World Mission (2003-2009). He currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Anglican Global Mission Partners and on the Board of Directors of Anglican Frontier Missions, the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (formerly the South American Missionary Society—SAMS), and Uganda Christian University Partners.
Raised in the Baptist tradition, Dean Munday was called to ordained ministry at an early age and served for nearly a decade as a minister in the Southern Baptist Convention, in parish ministry, and pediatric oncology chaplaincy. While teaching at a Southern Baptist seminary, he was drawn to the liturgy and sacramental ministry of the Episcopal Church. He joined the faculty at the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in 1986 and was ordained to the diaconate (November 1989) and priesthood (June 1990) by the Rt. Rev. Edward H. MacBurney.
Dean Munday holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University, a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University, and the MDiv and PhD degrees from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and did post-doctoral study at Vanderbilt, Duquesne, and Oxford universities. He is an Associate Alumnus of Nashotah House. He completed coursework for the Doctor of Ministry degree at The School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where his area of concentration was Anglican spirituality and liturgics.
Dean Munday is known for his commitment to biblical orthodoxy and for upholding historic catholic faith and order within the Anglican tradition. He is a prolific writer on a variety of subjects and is much sought after as a retreat leader and conference speaker. His spirituality is grounded in the Benedictine tradition, and he is an Oblate of St. Benedict’s Abbey, Bartonville, Illinois.
During Dean Munday’s ten years as Dean and President of Nashotah House he led the seminary in beginning the first master’s degree program through distance education to be offered from an Episcopal seminary. Reflecting a desire to provide quality continuing education for clergy, he also led in the creation of Nashotah House’s Doctor of Ministry degree program. He designed and oversaw construction of the Adams Hall addition to the James Lloyd Breck Refectory, which provided the seminary with conference and expanded classroom facilities.
In his present capacity as Research Professor of Theology and Mission, Dean Munday combines his love for Scripture and the Church’s theological tradition with his passion for Christ’s Great Commission to spread the Gospel through preaching, missions, and evangelism.
Dean Munday has been married to his wife, Christina, since 1976. Their daughter Laura is a student at Asbury University in Kentucky.
