Its ministry is a quiet one: pointing clergy and staff of the Anglican Church of Canada towards resources to improve their work. Now, after nine years of faithful service, the Continuing Education Plan (CEP) website has received a much-needed makeover.
The core elements are the same. The CEP website provides listings of courses, conferences, and events that relate to Anglican ministry. There is a section for news and an e-community with book reviews, course reviews, and a place for discussion.
New features include more robust search filtering and the opportunity to incorporate richer content like images and video. General Synod Web Manager Brian Bukowski converted the site to a WordPress content management system and has focused on improving the overall user experience with a new colour palette and cleaner graphics.
Although designed for the approximately 1,600 plan members in the Anglican Church of Canada, the CEP website serves a much wider audience. More than 12,500 people from 166 countries visit the site each year.
The website hosts an average of 350 to 400 program opportunities at any given time.
The Rev. Lynn Ross, CEP website editor, says that this is the only website in the Anglican Communion broadly devoted to continuing education and professional development.
“As far as I know we’re the only ones doing this,” said Mr. Ross. “We should be proud of that and proud of the creativity of the unit. We were pioneers in a way. The unit has been doing this for a long time.”
Mr. Ross has been with the site since the beginning. A retired parish priest, he has also served on communications teams for Primates’ meetings and two Lambeth conferences. Mr. Ross has visited many institutions listed on the site and monitors new programs by reading a fleet of email newsletters from schools and conference centres.
Founded in 1971, the continuing education program aims to help clergy and lay staff “develop their skills and enrich their working lives.”
All paid clergy are automatically included in the plan and lay employees can join with their employer’s approval. Members receive $450 annually, with a bonus each time they use their account. Funds can be used for books, computer hardware or software, equipment, or any continuing education program or course.
- Visit the new CEP website
- Get in touch to learn more or submit reviews
- Learn more about continuing education in the Anglican Church of Canada
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