“She had a presence and an authority that made her quiet words deeply significant wherever she spoke them,” said Professor Emerita Dorothy Jean Weaver, who taught Miller at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) and worked alongside her on faculty for 19 years. “In her own way, she was a giant. She had a huge impact wherever she was, and certainly here at EMS.”

Miller served the seminary from 1991 to 2010 in roles including campus pastor and assistant professor of spiritual formation. She was committed to helping people discover their story within “God’s great story,” establishing EMS’ spiritual formation program, and founding training programs for spiritual directors within Mennonite Church USA and The United Methodist Church.

At EMS, she led the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation and developed “Soul Space,” an online guide for scripture reading and prayer. Many of her lasting contributions, through the gifts she shared and the lives she touched, endure today.

In addition to her two decades on seminary faculty, she was an ordained minister in Mennonite Church USA’s Virginia Conference and was a leading author. Among her writings, Invitation to Presence: A Guide to Spiritual Disciplines (Upper Room Books, 1995) was translated into several languages. She maintained a private spiritual direction practice until entering hospice care last summer.

Formerly of Broadway, Virginia, Miller was living in West Chicago, Illinois, when she passed away on Oct. 8, 2025. She was 87. A memorial service celebrating her life, held on Dec. 6, can be viewed on YouTube . A full obituary is available at .

Her husband and partner in ministry of 65 years, the Rev. Edmond F. Miller, died in October 2024.

‘Her imprint remains’

Because of Miller’s “gentle and steady efforts” beginning when she joined the seminary faculty in 1991, said the Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler, dean of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, EMS centered spiritual formation in its curriculum “long before theological schools in general and Anabaptist schools in particular caught on to the importance of tending the inner life of ministerial leaders.”

“Today, hundreds of EMS graduates have been sustained in their ministerial vocations because of the ‘invitation to presence’ Rev. Miller modeled and extended to them,” wrote Bixler. “Her imprint remains on the EMS curriculum, and students today cite the contemplative attentiveness cultivated by EMS as a distinctive and transformative aspect of their theological education. They are more compassionate, discerning, and resilient because of Rev. Miller’s influence.”

Her influence also lives on in the touches and traditions that have become part of the fabric of the seminary.

As reported in a in the Daily News-Record, Miller was “the driving force behind getting the (prayer) labyrinth installed” on the 91����Ƶ Hill above the Seminary Building. Dedicated in 2007, the labyrinth offers a unique way to connect with God.

Visitors to the Seminary Building might be familiar with the rectangular wooden “free table” just outside the second floor kitchen. It displays food and other items that people can leave or take. “That was Wendy’s idea,” said Weaver. “That’s how tangible and simple her ideas could be. She had a deep heart for the collective community.”

Another contribution she made to the seminary was the awareness that its faculty retreats should be held away from campus, Weaver said. For several decades, those retreats were held at Camp Overlook, a nearby United Methodist camp and retreat center. “She was someone who looked around and dreamed of things that could be,” Weaver said.

‘She saw potential in (us)’

One of Miller’s first students in the spiritual formation program, the Rev. Dr. Kevin Clark MA ’96 (church leadership) was trained and trusted to lead the program when she retired in 2010. “She was my teacher, my professor, my mentor, my friend, my spiritual director, and my colleague, all wrapped up in one relationship,” said Clark, a former campus pastor and retired assistant professor of spiritual formation at EMS.

“Wendy had this wisdom and insight into others that was unique,” he said. “Part of it was just rooted in who she was, as someone who paid attention to how God’s spirit was at work within others, and offering and evoking that in her quiet, questioning way. I was always amazed at how she would be in a classroom, we’d be in conversation, and she would have these wonderful little pauses, then come back with a question that was profound for a student to begin to think about. It opened up the whole classroom to a deeper understanding and awareness of their own spirituality.”

Les Horning ’86, MDiv ’98, director of admissions for EMS from 2012-18, also had Miller as a professor. He described her as “one of the most formative presences” of his MDiv experience.

“She saw potential in folks and would find ways to let them know,” he said. “Suddenly, you realized, Oh, she’s seeing my heart. I think that was one of her gifts, helping people dig beneath the surface and find out who they were.”

Horning graduated from 91����Ƶ with bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry and worked as a research chemist for five years before feeling a call for ministry and enrolling at EMS. “For me to come to seminary was a huge change and Wendy was a key part of helping me see that it was a good and right thing,” said Horning, pastor at Stephens City Mennonite Church. “She was very good at pulling out folks’ unique contributions to the community and making people feel valued and accepted and wanted.”

Along with Clark and Horning, Weaver traveled on an overnight train to Chicago last month to attend the memorial service. She remembers Miller for her love of Winnie the Pooh, her delightful laugh, and whimsical sense of humor. 

“She was a blessed woman who shared blessing with everyone she came in contact with,” Weaver said. “I consider it a major gift of my life to have been a friend of hers.”

She grew up in England

The following is from an obituary printed in the :

Born in 1938 in Westham, England, Miller was a child in London during World War II and later lived in Eastbourne, East Sussex. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1959, settling in Chicago with her husband. They served as missionaries in Frankfurt, Germany, and pastored churches including Woodland (Basye) Mennonite, as well as across the Midwest and eastern U.S. Following retirement, they lived in Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina before returning to Illinois.

Rev. Miller earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in church leadership with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling from EMS, and a master of sacred theology in spiritual theology and spiritual direction from General Theological Seminary in New York City.

She leaves five children, Paul (David Selmer) of Maine, David (Julie) of Georgia, Mark (Wendy) of Kansas, Scott (Laura) of Illinois, and Heidi (Gary MacDonald) of Georgia; 14 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren, three brothers, and four sisters-in-law.

Professor Wendy Miller engages students in conversation about deepening faith during the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation.

“I see and hear of so many people who are exhausted, befuddled and a little resentful as they sense a growing irrelevance in doing what they’ve always done,” said Barbara Smith-Morrison, transformational pastor at Bloomingdale (ON) Mennonite Church. Smith-Morrison felt this way four years ago as she began a six-month sabbatical from a pastoral role.

“I longed for a place where God might both soothe my soul and help me remember and discern my calling as a pastor again,” she continued. “Jan Steckley, a good friend and pastoral colleague, recommended that I look into the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation at Eastern Mennonite Seminary.”

The Institute is a two-week summer program which offers classes, worship and experiential learning in the area of spiritual formation. It teaches spiritual directors and ministry leaders how to deepen their own faith and lead others in doing the same. Students can receive up to four seminary credits each summer and a certificate from the Institute after completing three summers.

“A part of the gift that the Summer Institute has offered me is simply remembering and orientation.,” continued Smith-Morrison, “I have often times fallen under the sneaky and incorrect perception that I am or we are responsible for the life, health, direction and ministries of the church.

“My myriad experiences at the Institute have helped me to remember that I am a regular woman who is not responsible for it all. It reminds me that I am created and loved immensely by God and am given grace upon grace in this life.”

Sandra Shantz, chair of the leadership council at St. Jacobs (ON) Mennonite Church, said, “The Summer Institute gave me the opportunity to explore spirituality on a very personal level while providing vocabulary and academic structure has allowed my heart and my head to communicate.

“It has helped me to push my comfort zone in spiritual conversations and to bring that piece to my leadership roles,” she added.

Six church leaders in Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) are taking what they learned at the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation and creating a program for spiritual growth in MCEC.

“Tending the Soul of Individuals and Congregations” is a two-year program involving six retreat weekends. Dr. Wendy Miller, a teacher in The Summer Institute, will lead these retreat weekends.

“We are very excited about our first of six weekend retreats Oct. 1-3,” said Shantz. “I believe there is a strong desire by many people to explore the depths of their own spiritual beings, and the Summer Institute equips people to do just that, and to help others, like those of us in MCEC, to tend to that longing.”

Eastern Mennonite Seminary offers three masters degree programs, including a master of divinity. The graduate school of theological education is located on the campus of 91����Ƶ in Harrisonburg, Va. For more information about the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation or any of the programs at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, contact the office of seminary admission at semadmiss@emu.edu or 540-432-4257.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is offering evening and weekend courses on these topics this spring.

• Wendy J. Miller, assistant professor of spiritual formation, will teach “Spiritual Formation in Congregational Discernment” 6:30-9:10 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 9-Apr. 24.

• Brenda Martin Hurst, assistant professor of practical theology, will teach “Contemporary Theology: Women

  ]]> /now/news/2006/summer-institute-shapes-lives/ Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=1217
  ]]> /now/news/2006/bikemovement-seminary-grad-anticipates-a-different-type-of-internship/ Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=1153 When Alicia R. Horst began her studies at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, she was certain that she didn
  ]]> /now/news/2005/soul-space-offers-guidance-online/ Tue, 29 Nov 2005 05:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=1014 Wendy J. Miller, associate professor of spiritual formation at EMS, is the guiding force behind ‘S o u l s p a c e,’ a new section of the 91����Ƶ web site that provides guidance to those seeking care for the soul.
  ]]> /now/news/2005/ems-labyrinth-a-prayerful-walking-space-in-preparation/ Thu, 29 Sep 2005 04:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=962
  Brian Martin Burkholder and Wendy J. Miller display the design for the labyrinth being constructed on a 91����Ƶ hillside site.
  Photo by Jim Bishop

  On the hillside a short walk up from , people of all ages and walks of life may soon be seen walking in quiet circles.

  A stone labyrinth, now under construction, will facilitate students, faculty, conference attendees and visitors from the surrounding community who seek a setting for prayer and meditation.

  With a $15,000 grant from the

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