Study Committee on Ordained Ministry Reports
Episcopal News Service. March 3, 1976 [76083]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- One third of the Church's seminarians are now studying at diocesan schools rather than in one of the ten accredited Episcopal seminaries.
The proportion of clergy in non-stipendiary work -- the so-called "tent-maker's ministry" -- has sharply increased over the past decade.
The funding of accredited Episcopal seminaries, never considered a responsibility of the national Church, has now become a crucial problem.
These are among the findings of a special Study Committee on the Preparation for the Ordained Ministry, chaired by the Rt. Rev. John Krumm, Bishop of Southern Ohio, and submitted this month to the Board for Theological Education, the Church's canonical body charged with the oversight of theological education. This Board, which commissioned the Report in response to a resolution of General Convention in 1973, is transmitting it exactly as received for debate and possible adoption by the Minnesota Convention this fall.
The Krumm Report covers a wide range of subjects, including the responsibility of Episcopal seminaries today, methods of recruiting and selecting candidates for the priesthood, the changing requirements for clergy in the Church, the increased importance of the lay ministry and the need for church-wide reflection on the nature of ministry.
Presiding Bishop John M. Allin said that the Report -- "in spite of the pain and problems it identifies" -- offers "the greatest opportunity we have had in this century to understand the ministry." Bishop Allin considers the Report "a basis for rediscovering ministry in our own time."
Bishop Ned Cole of Central New York, chairman of the Board for Theological Education, also welcomes the Report although he warns that "it gives no smooth answers."
Bishop Cole added: "In its recommendations it suggests some guidelines for the new and vital Commissions on Ministry, parishes, Standing Committees, the accredited seminaries, the increasing number of local theological centers, the bishops, and not least our Board for Theological Education."
In preparing the Report, which covers a broad spectrum of concerns in theological education today, representatives of the Committee personally visited over 50 dioceses and received data from virtually every diocese. All ten seminaries were visited, as well as 24 of the 30 diocesan training centers.
The findings of the Committee are contained in an 110-page Report and in a substantial appendix. The coordinator of this study was the Rev. Richard L. Rising. The Report supersedes an earlier study prepared under the direction of former Harvard President Nathan Pusey in 1967 and published by the Seabury Press as Ministry for Tomorrow.
The problem of clergy placement continues to be acute. There is an annual increase of about 200 ordained clergy to the active list of some 10,000, although job opportunities are limited. The number of communicants continues a slow decline. Parishes and missions remain constant at 7,300.
Most Church leaders, however, do not believe that the answer is to cut down drastically on seminary enrollment. Instead they see a need to re-study the future of the ministry, especially as it includes non-stipendiary priests and as it makes more effective use of the laity. As Dr. John Coburn has noted, "there is a crumbling of any former sharp distinctions between clerical and lay orders in the ministry of Christ."
Dr. Coburn, President of the House of Deputies and Bishop-elect of Massachusetts, called the Report "excellent" and termed it "the best discussion of the issues before us." Dr. Coburn, former Dean of Episcopal Divinity School, commended the Report "for both study and action at Minneapolis."
A major new resource for theological training is provided by the increasing number of diocesan theological study centers. Most of these thirty diocesan centers are concerned with preparing non-stipendiary pre-ordinands and laity.
Exceptions are the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Kentucky, with a three-year residential program, which in earlier years emphasized training for rural ministry, and also the Mercer School of Theology on Long Island and the Bloy School of Theology in Claremont, California, both of which were originally established for "late vocations."
Some 400 pre-ordinands are now attending these diocesan schools, compared with 700 students regularly enrolled in the ten accredited Episcopal seminaries; Berkeley Divinity School, Bexley Hall, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Episcopal Divinity School, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, General Theological Seminary, Nashotah House, School of Theology of the University of the South (Sewanee), Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and Virginia Theological Seminary.
Most diocesan centers have heavy enrollement of laity, most of whom want graduate courses in theology but do not wish to be ordained.
One of the principal recommendations of the Krumm Report was an appeal for financial support for the seminaries from the Church. It is now generally agreed that the General Church Program Budget, contributed principally through diocesan apportionment, cannot bear this responsibility.
Instead, the Report recommends that each parish attempt to set aside an amount equal to 3% of its operating budget to contribute to seminaries of its choice, perhaps developing support for this appeal early each year at the time of Theological Education Sunday.
This would provide an opportunity for acquainting parishes with the ministry and mission of the seminaries, as well as their financial needs.
In 1975, offerings at Theological Education Sunday totaled $463,000, or 23 cents per communicant. An offering four times that of 1975 would produce nearly $2,000,000 or 21% of the operating expenses of the ten seminaries.
Bishop Krumm's Study Committee has been sharing its findings widely. The Bishop summarized and discussed the Report at recent meetings of both the Ministry Council and the Conference of Seminary Deans. The Report itself is being mailed to all bishops of the Church, as well as to deputies and alternates to the General Convention, to delegates to the Triennial, and to other church leaders.
Although the Pusey Report suggested that theological education was characteristically urban, ecumenical, and university-related, the Krumm Report notes that there is no one model today.
There is a need, in the committee's judgment, for diversity in seminaries. Further, the Report states, each seminary must not only offer academic and professional training, but must also provide "a spiritual formation" for every seminarian. Each seminary must be "a community of faith and worship" in order to provide this "formation."
No longer is there validity in a notion that "a clergyman here is a clergyman everywhere" because the demands on ordained ministry are now so extraordinarily diverse.
However, parish and diocesan leaders agreed in their shared need for spiritual depth, commitment, openness, and personal warmth in the clergy. The three most specific talents identified were preaching, pastoral counseling, and the ability to develop and lead educational programs.
Lay ministry, according to Bishop Krumm, must be studied "more formally" and with "more dignity." If laymen find opportunities for significant service in the Church, they will not feel the need to be ordained, and can continue in their lay vocations. Both lay ministry and non-stipendiary ministry must be given more meaning and affirmation.
The Report urged further recruitment of black seminarians and a continuing effort in seminaries to develop a curriculum which "meaningfully reflects black life, history and thought."
On the subject of women seminarians, the Report noted that enrollment of women students was only 5 percent five years ago, but now is 17 percent and is projected to increase to 25 percent by 1980. The Report was silent on the issue of women's ordination, but recommended that steps be taken to ensure the placement of women "in all appropriate ways in the ordained ministry of the Church. " The appointment of women to seminary faculties and Boards was also considered "a matter of high priority."
The Report asked for the continuation of the Board for Theological Education in its present form with adequate funding.
Members of the Executive Group of the Study Committee which prepared the Report were: Bishop Krumm, Chairman; Mrs. Seaton Bailey; Mr. Karl Mathiasen III; the Very Rev. Harvey Guthrie Jr.; the Very Rev. Urban Holmes III.
The Rev. Almus N. Thorp, former Dean of Bexley, serves as Executive Director of the Board for Theological Education.
I see Bishop Krumm's Committee Report as not just "another study." It reports the Church's current attitude toward theological education. It gives some startling statistics. It raises some hard questions. It gives no smooth answers. In its recommendations it suggests some guidelines for the new and vital Commissions on Ministry, parishes, Standing Committees, the accredited seminaries, the increasing number of local theological centers, the bishops and not least our Board for Theological Education.
I believe the Church has said with real clarity that there is needed a variety of ways to prepare persons for the ordained ministry but there needs to be communication and cooperation among these theological centers. I believe the Church has said that ordained ministers may serve communities other than the ordinary parish model. I believe that the Church has said that there are new ways of equipping all members of the Church to be ministers in Christ's Church.
The Board for Theological Education feels the report indicates we have done what the Church canons have mandated us to do, has given us some new directions and now asks the Church to strengthen and financially support theological education. I welcome the charge and the Board assumes the task laid upon us. I hope the Church enthusiastically responds with its support.
Bishop Ned Cole, chairman
Board for Theological Education