Financial difficulties and drastic changes in the role of the Christian church in society are prompting the leaders of the 11 seminaries connected with the Episcopal Church to reconsider theological education.
The seminaries’ Council of Deans has met three times this year already, twice more than its normal annual meeting, to discuss issues facing the seminaries. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori joined the deans in their March and June meetings.
The Very Rev. Ward Ewing, dean and president of the General Theological Society (GTS) and convener of the Council of Deans, said the deans have realized that because of financial restrictions faced by all the seminaries, “every seminary can’t provide everything for everybody.” Thus, they are exploring how to develop “the kind of coalition so that each seminary becomes a gateway to the resources of all the seminaries.”
The deans’ goal is not simply to improve and strengthen their own seminaries, Ewing said.
“The seminaries exist primarily as servants for the Church,” he said, and are called work together to “provide the resources of the seminaries for the whole Church” so that the seminaries are seen as “adding value to the leadership of the Church.”
I don’t get it. Katharine Schori says below ECUSA is “vital and alive.” Maybe the seminary deans didn’t get the message?
EDS, Yale, Sewanee, Seabury Western, CDSP, General, Viginia, Berkeley, and that place in Texas might want to consider “theological education” and even “bibilical studies” as part of their academic offerings.
I served as part of the staff of the General Board of Examining Chaplains from 1990 to 2002. The GBEC includes 4 bishops, 6 seminary faculty, 6 parish clergy, and 6 lay people. Almost all are present or former seminary or college faculty with expertise in one or more of the seven areas of study in which people seeking ordination as priests are required by canon to “show proficiency:” Holy Scripture, Christian Theology, Church History, Christian Ethics and Moral Theology, Liturgics, Studies in Contemporary Society, and Theory and Practice of Ministry. The Board each year wrote and evaluated responses to a General Ordination Examination. Over the 12 years I assisted in administering the GOE each of the seminaries did about as well as the others in preparing people for the GOE, and students at non-Episcopal seminaries and non-M.Div. candidates at Episcopal seminaries did almost as well as Episcopal M.Div. candidates. The numbers are small, ranging from 50 to 10 GOE candidates each year on average.
I’m glad to see that the seminary deans are recognizing the limits. They do so about every 10 years, and I’ll be interested to see what kinds of cooperation they can develop.
Tom Rightmyer in Asheville, NC
Isn’t this just going to spread the infection faster to the remaining laypeople? Maybe that’s the goal.
I wonder when we have seminaries if non-believers can teach there. Any school can have a theology department. Of course we want to control the final product.
Did Nashotah House and Trinity School for Ministry actually participate in the process outlined in this article, or are Rev. Ewing and the rest simply including them for politeness?
Having just graduated from Seminary, I think I can speak on this with some authority. Considering the size of our church (and said church’s propensity to shrink), the number of seminaries is really redundant. The Lutherans have more members in the US and more seminarians numerically and they have fewer seminaries. If they were truly realistic, the seminary deans would be talking about consolidating. ECUSA can’t keep up the 11 seminary circuit with current tuition prices and expect growth or diversity. Its basically only people from the rich ‘burbs that can afford seminary as it is.
Dear Tom Rightmyer in Asheville, NC
I am a senior in seminary and will be taking the GOEs this coming January. Do you have any advice or tips on taking this test? My school has been relatively silent on this so far and I need all the support I can get.
We could connect off-blog through email: arisrivera AT gmail DOT com
I know that this is off topic, but I really need some help preparing for the GOEs. If anyone has any good advice please feel free to email me at arisrivera AT gmail DOT com
#7 Archer – how do your job prospects look and those of classmates?
#9: 1) Make a list of the ten most dysfunctional clergy you know. 2) In times of doubt or stress, remind yourself that they passed. 3) Repeat step two as necessary.
Optional Step 4) Take a survey of clergy and ask them how many parishioners have ever questioned them about how they did on the GOE’s.
If this is how ENS describes the financial situation of the seminaries, one can only imagine how dire it must be. Whenever the excuse that other mainline churches are experiencing the same thing, and the excuse of demographic changes are offered, you can be sure that 1) you’re not getting the full story about how bad it is and 2) there’s no desire to change what they’re doing to remedy the problem. Who in their right mind today would give money to one of the ECUSA seminaries (save for Trinity and Nashotah)? Certainly this number of seminaries is ridiculous for the Incredibly Shrinking Denomination. Watch for at least one of them to “consolidate” (read close up) within the next couple of years. And somehow the orthodox will be to blame.
Dear #3, Tom, On this exam, what is considered a correct answer to the question? From what I hear from KJS, Spong and the like, I would grade their speeches an F in terms of Christian theological content; I do not think that they have even the fintest understanding of Scripture, church history, christian ethics and the like. And I wonder about liturgics as well, when I see samples of some of the newfangled liturgies that are emerging. From where I sit, there are occasainal outstanding folk who emerge from the ECUSA seminaries, but the only 2 left that are acceptable are Trinity and Nashota (plus Wycliffe in Toronto).
I’d say most of the folks in my class did fine in terms of Job prospects. My bishop worked out a curacy for me. Of course, most of the people in my class were white males and middle aged women, so we didn’t have many problems in terms of employment. Most of us had jobs to go to after graduation.