Ministry Training Standards Endorsed
Episcopal News Service. June 14, 1979 [79200]
NEW YORK -- The quest for clear standards and strong accountability will mark the Episcopal Church's ministry training efforts in the coming (1980-82) triennium.
That, at least, appears to be the direction that three General Convention agencies are taking in their reports to Convention contained in the recently published "Blue Book."
One, the Council for the Development of Ministry, chaired by the Rt. Rev. Lloyd E. Gressle of Bethlehem, encountered this need for developing standards in the rapidly spreading use of the Canon (III.8) permitting ordination to the priesthood for geographically or otherwise limited special situations.
The panel noted that the rapid increase in the use of the Canon had not been anticipated. After a national conference, it concluded that in the matter of selection, "while affirming that diversity is a value to be maintained, it was thought that a certain agreement on the overall concept would be helpful." The consultation suggested that such ordination would be best used in communities which had implemented a Total Ministry approach.
The whole question of Total Ministry -- the training and integration of the ministries of both lay and ordained Christians -- also came under examination as the Council coordinated a study which involved the Board for Theological Education and the Office of Lay Ministries of the Episcopal Church Center.
Surveys and a late-1978 consultation concluded that, while local parishes had the primary responsibility for developing Total Ministry, existing diocesan, regional and national structures were capable of providing the support and direction needed to make the concept work. The report presses strongly for the committed, disciplined adaptation of these structures to fit this expanded role.
A firm result of the Total Ministry examination emerges in the report of the Board for Theological Education, chaired by the Rt. Rev. John B. Coburn of Massachusetts.
That report notes that the Lay Ministries office and the Board have begun to develop a project to support laypeople who want to hone their gifts and training in accredited seminaries.
The work in lay ministry is part of the Board's overall response to the 1976 General Convention affirmation of a wide-ranging report: "Changing Patterns of the Church's Ministry in the 1970s." This includes a great deal of programmatic work -- such as the lay ministry training -- but also a good deal of evaluation and coordination of all the aspects of theological training.
One area that received attention in the last year was the role of the Church's 10 accredited seminaries and the role of the diocesan and other training institutions. Lengthy and often bitter debate carried out in various Church journals led the Board to create a committee charged with gathering information about the question and opening helpful communication among the parties of the issue.
As a result, the Board is offering two resolutions to the Convention, both of which it has already endorsed.
The first asserts that the accredited seminaries offer "manifest advantages for the preparation for the full-time stipendiary service in the ordained ministry" but that preparation for ordination under other circumstances can take place in diocesan or other settings. It challenges the seminaries to look on the growth of other forms of ministry training as an "opportunity for wider service to the Church" and urges the diocesan programs to take advantage of the seminaries' assistance.
The second resolution would have the Convention affirm the contribution of diocesan and other programs "particularly for the exercise of non-stipendiary and lay ministries in this Church."
The third organization concerned with ministry training -- the General Board of Examining Chaplains -- views itself as a testing ground for the whole Church of the procedures used in training ordinands.
In its eight years of existence, the Board's annual General Ordination Examination has won acceptance throughout the Church with all but three of the 93 domestic dioceses using the test. The Board reports that it is re-evaluating the objective test, begun five years ago, and will continue efforts to train and recruit readers for the increasingly massive task.