Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III offers a teaching-style Sunday Forum during Advent 2009.

“Christmas is the reality and the rest of life is illusion.” As those words of a wise spiritual writer suggest, there is much more to Christmas than a quaint celebration of a child in a manger, wrapped around with Christmas trees, carols, and gifts. In these sessions we will probe the poetry of Christmas in search of the luminous vision of our lives they contain, and then we’ll ask what a life built on that vision might look like.

Part I. The Soul and the Season: Discovering the Reality of Christmas

Part II. Home By a Different Way: Living Christmas All Year Long

About The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III

The Rev. Dr. Samuel T. Lloyd III was installed as the ninth dean of Washington National Cathedral on April 23, 2005, charged with leadership of what is widely referred to as “the national house of prayer.”

Dean Lloyd previously served as rector of historic Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts, for 12 years. His work in Boston focused on preaching, teaching, and developing Christian community, with emphases on lay leadership, wide-ranging styles of worship, and engagement in a broad array of direct and social justice ministries.

Dean Lloyd began his ministry as an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in the early 1980s while also serving as assistant to the rector and chaplain at St. Paul’s Memorial Church in Charlottesville. In 1984 he became rector of the Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to moving to Boston, Dean Lloyd was chaplain of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Dean Lloyd holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Virginia. He also holds an M.A. degree in English Literature from Georgetown University and received his B.A. from the University of Mississippi. He has received honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from the University of the South and Virginia Theological Seminary.

Dean Lloyd has taught in seminaries and has frequently spoken at conferences and conventions. He has preached on the “Protestant Hour” on radio and offered courses in the area of Christianity and literature, including Flannery O’Connor, Dante, contemporary fiction, C. S. Lewis, and the parables.

He currently serves as a regent of the University of the South. His writing and reviews have been published by the Sewanee Theological Review, Forward Movement, Anglican Digest, and Journal of Religion, among others.