Distributed at House of Bishops meeting Spring, 2006
(drawn together from reports forwarded by Provincial Houses. Please note: not all Provincial Houses were able to complete conversations on all questions provided)
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Review the Report of the Task Force on Theological Education 2000 (The Bays Report) and its recommendations. What in the Report and Recommendations still ring true for you? What Recommendations have been implemented, to your knowledge? What has changed since 2000?
Rupert’s Land:
- Recommendations re: Provincial work: A Provincial Commission is not practical in our context — too expensive. Our Province is too diverse to adequately articulate a Provincial House of Bishops’ statement on theological education, and resources are limited for this work.
- Recommendations re: financial matters: The work on non-stipendiary ministry with ACIP is now re-started. The Anglican Foundation does have a limited program for bursaries, but it is applicable only for study in North America. This, however, does not prevent the establishment of new trusts for funding education.
Canada:
- We affirm the need to express a set core of expectations for theological education that could be affirmed in a variety of contexts across the country.
- We affirm recommendation 3 of the Task Force report “We recommend that the national church continue to have an interest in theological education and encourage the sharing of information and resources. This might be done by a national staff person, a designated representative of a province, a faculty member or other interested person.”
- We affirm recommendation 4 of the Task Force report “We encourage the national church to develop a program of funding, perhaps through the Anglican Foundation, to encourage advanced theological study and the training of faculty and other teachers of theology. A model for this might be the Episcopal Church Foundation Fellows of the Episcopal Church in the United States.”
- We raised question and concerns around ACPO – differences in process and expectations in the four ecclesiastical provinces in the Anglican Church of Canada. There is a need for further discussion.
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What do you affirm in how current systems of theological education are forming, training and educating people to be priests in the church today?
BC-Yukon:
- The ACPO material contains some core standards.
- Affirmed the work of the Vancouver School of Theology. Faculty ask of the bishops: what is it that you are looking for in ordained ministry?
- We do not want to dumb down theological education. Ministry is actually more challenging than it was even 25years ago. Affirm that we hold high standards of theological education however we deliver it.
- Affirm the role of the bishop. (example of Myanmar where bishops are evangelists). What’s our work and therefore what is the work of our person in the parish? What are the expectations and requirements for ourselves and therefore of the people we put in those places?
Rupert’s Land:
- Affirmed work of a wide variety of specific educational institutions for different reasons, reviewing to which Colleges the RL bishops are sending their students. (Detailed in Minutes).
Ontario:
- Affirmed the work of OPCoTE (Ontario Provincial Commission on Theological Education, which has excellent representation from colleges and dioceses.
Canada:
- Supervised field education
- Research projects (ATS)
- The formation of candidates through the theological colleges in the Province
- The ecumenical partnership in the training process
- Summer placements (Québec-Montréal)
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What are the things that need to be left behind in order to move forward?
Common Concern Expressed:
- Need to let go of older images of parish ministry and individualistic models of preparation and ministry itself.
BC-Yukon:
- It was suggested that it is needful to move away from a professional model of priesthood to a vocational model. The whole process of formation of character around prayerful person not only equipped with the skills but the character formation required is important.
- A question was raised in regard to locally raised ministry. How do you provide a context in which character and spiritual development can take place in a disciplined and systematic way as theoretically possible within a seminary setting?
Rupert’s Land:
- Some named length of programmes of traditional theological schools as a problem.
- Distance between “the Church” and “the Colleges” a problem. Need to come closer together in partnership (but is this practical?). Theological Colleges have become more “that” rather than seminaries.
- Need to move away from an “over-focus” on individual development – and more toward functioning in community. There seems to be a lack of ability for some “southern-trained” clergy to adapt to the local context – but rather want to super-impose a pre-conceived idea of “church”. There is a need to provide students with “cross-cultural” (not necessarily different races, but different contexts – rural/urban; rich/poor; intellectual/working class, west/east, etc.)
Ontario:
- Still turning out candidates for traditional ministry, but that parish model is no longer holding up. Need to think outside the box. What do people need in ministry?
- Need to give up lone priest model.
Canada:
- Need to let go of the model of “one congregation, one priest”
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What do you think are the actions needed to be taken:
a) By the national House of Bishops
Common Concerns Expressed:
- Need to have this conversation as a full national House
- Need to address financial issues and role of Church in relationship to the Colleges
BC-Yukon:
- Conversation of the sort we experienced in this conference call would be very helpful if held on a national level, perhaps over several meetings.
- However, need equally to get beyond conversation and come up with some common standards that are minimum and put them in place in terms of training for anyone seeking ordination.
- There is need for another kind of conversation at the National House and that concerns funding of theological colleges. Our colleges are close to a national crisis in terms of funding and we therefore need to consider how we fund theological education in the Country.
Canada:
- Address the financial crisis – re: support if our theological colleges
- That ecumenical responses regarding education are kept before us
- Awareness and education around interfaith dialogue
- Development of management and administrative skills
What do you think are the actions needed to be taken
b) By the Colleges themselves?
BC-Yukon: Re: Implications of full communion with the ELCIC- it was suggested that theological students receive training in the confessions and polity of the ELCIC to ease conversation and participation in the life of the church.
Canada: Hold a conference bringing the Principals and Directors of Studies together to discuss theological education – cares and concerns
What do you think are the actions needed to be taken
c) By Provincial bodies (committees on ministry, OPCOTE, etc.)
Canada:
- In the Diocese of Montreal, the Bishop’s Commission on Ministry will evaluate the present system of theological education, training and formation for ministry and recommend to the Bishop any need for change or adjustment.
- At our Provincial Synod of 2006 we will hold a workshop studying the ordinal from the BAS. We will ask the Lay people of our synod for input regarding what they view and recognise as important for ordained ministry.
- Also at our Provincial Synod of 2006, we will establish a Provincial Commission on Ministry.
BC-Yukon:
- Question: What support does the Provincial Theological College get from Provincial Dioceses?
What do you think are the actions needed to be taken
d) By other bodies (General Synod, Faith, Worship and Ministry)
Canada:
- We affirm the work and study that the Faith, Worship and Ministry Committee has done and encourage the Committee in its continuing role in the area of theological education.
Ontario:
- Bishop Ann’s work on TEAC needs to be brought into the mix more formally.
- Cooperation with Lutherans needs to be incorporated
- More work on the diaconate
What from your discussion needs to go to the full national House of Bishops for further national-level conversation and action?
BC-Yukon:
- The House of Bishops needs to come to a common understanding about theological education.
Canada:
- The relationship of the Bishop to the Theological Colleges
- Seeking new monies, i.e. planned giving for a Theological College, seed money for new endeavours in theological education.
What needs to go to Faith, Worship and Ministry for conversation and action?
Canada:
- How does the programme “Letting down the nets” impact on theological education?
- How are we preparing people for ordained ministry in the 21st century?
- What new models of ministry are shaping the future of ordained ministry?
- What role does the Church have in the modern world?
- Healing and Reconciliation – Residential schools – How do the theological colleges address this in their curriculum?
BC-Yukon:
- Until theological education gets into the national budget what can General Synod do for theological education?
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Comments not directed to specific questions, above:
Concerns, Questions:
Looking at “locally raised ministry”: what must a priest be to support all the baptized? Is there a core knowledge set that any priest must have? A pressing question is the issue of locally ordained clergy- what are the skills needed by any priest to get if they do not attend seminary? One can see where the locally raised priest is the presider, teacher/ preacher but the gifts of counseling, evangelism, healing, and reconciling will be found in other members.
What happens when you have a priest in the parish that is not capable of functioning effectively liturgically or to teach effectively?
(Ontario) Programmes for aboriginal training need representation. Theological colleges lack resources for this, but United Church of Canada has Francis Sandy Centre.
Do the Ontario colleges need to replicate what is being done elsewhere? Should each college specialize? Reliant on income from lay education.
There are lots of PhDs and ThDs without jobs; there is not really a shortage of people for academic appointments. Funding for higher theological education is not the issue.
Issue of debt load for theological education for ordination; this is a huge issue.
Needs for post-ordination training, especially now that we’ve effectively lost curacies.
Need to decide what should be centralized and decentralized.
Bishops don’t necessarily hold people accountable for what they are doing.
Need to be more careful about discernment of vocation.
Aspirations:
- Need to develop a programme for mentoring the newly-ordained.
- Greatest connection is Sunday worship. A person must be able to connect the people with God and interpret the faith to highly skeptical people.
- See work on Godly, Learned and Able (adopted by the Ontario Provincial House)
- Need to know church history so there is no new heresy.
- Formation as Anglicans is important. A number of people have only an academic sense and have not really internalized it. But can’t load all the woes on the theological colleges. Need more focus on scripture, inner spiritual life.
