N.H. Episcopal Church Wants To Make It Easier To Become a Priest

From New Hampshire-

The Episcopal Church of New Hampshire is launching a new training program that it hopes will make  becoming a priest easier for people in different stages of their lives.

Rather than the traditional three years of training at seminary school, the diocese in New Hampshire will begin offering a certificate program next year that requires students to attend in-person trainings nine weekends a year while completing coursework independently from their homes.

“This really makes it easier for people to answer that call, whether that call to ministry comes in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, we even have people doing this post-retirement,” says Tina Pickering, who works in ministry development for the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire.

More here-

https://www.nhpr.org/post/nh-episcopal-church-wants-make-it-easier-become-priest#stream/0

ON BEING A MILLENNIAL PASTOR – LEADERS WHO DON’T REMEMBER THE GLORY DAYS

From Erik Parker-

“You give us hope for the future.”

The first time I heard those words, I was 23 years old and in seminary. A group of us had travelled 7 hours, from the prairies to the mountains, to attend a study conference for pastors and other church professionals. We were a group of 20 and 30 somethings, all Masters of Divinity students already having bachelor’s degrees and work experience, but compared to the average age of pastors in the mainline, we may as well have been teenagers. So we probably seemed like a group of disruptive students crashing a conference for older folks.

But instead of being grumpy with us or giving us glares (as church folk can sometimes be guilty of doing with young noise makers), we were heartily welcomed by our future colleagues. Our relative energy and enthusiasm seemed to bring them some life and excitement.

And that is when it started happening. Sometimes one or more elder colleagues would sidle up to us and say things like, “You all give me hope for the church’s future” or “You make me feel better about the future.”

More here-

https://millennialpastor.net/2018/03/12/on-being-a-millennial-pastor-leaders-who-dont-remember-the-glory-days/

Thinking about ordination? Think again.

From The Word Made Fresh-

Dear person who is feeling a call to pastor,

If you’re seriously considering becoming a pastor, think again.

Entering this ministry will be one of the hardest things you will ever do. You are signing up for the possibility of working incredibly long hours and will need to develop and maintain safe boundaries both for yourself and your community. If you’re lucky you’ll be paid. If you’re really lucky you’ll be paid enough to support yourself and your family (if you have one). You will have to manage unrealistic expectations from every direction, including within, and you will have to say “no” sometimes. You will encounter incredibly difficult personalities who will project onto you every grievance they have towards God. You will think about quitting once a month and at some point it might become a weekly consideration. 

You’ll encounter the shadow side of the Church – the place where sexism, classism, racism, homophobia, and general human brokenness lurk (to varying degrees depending on where you serve). You’ll be tempted towards snark over vulnerability and stubbornness over conversion. You will have your strength and patience tested far beyond anything you have faced. You will have the button of your deepest insecurity pressed over and over again. You’ll be made to feel insignificant by the shear size of it all. You will feel a deep sense of loneliness sometimes. You will have friends who will walk away from you… and it will hurt. You will disappoint people. You will disappoint yourself. You will feel constrained by the vows you take upon yourself. You will give your life to it and wonder if it makes any difference at all. You will encounter unspeakable pain and you will cry many tears.

More here-

https://wordmadefresh.com/2016/06/09/thinking-about-ordination-think-again/

SCHOOLS FOR THE IMAGINATION

From The Living Church-

The difficulty that confronts ordinands is often due less to intellectual rigour than to experience and the imagination. Thanks to the cultural changes of the past 50 years, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, and even Luther and Calvin reside in an unfamiliar world. Very often their concerns and commitments are almost unintelligible, if not repugnant, to late modern people. Over and over again, I’ve heard ordinands complain that Aquinas or Hooker or Tertullian isn’t relevant to today’s ministry. None of this is to suggest that ordinands today are dim or ill-educated. Rather, it points to what’s fundamentally lacking in the preparation of a great many of them: the imaginary.

Many ordinands haven’t had their imagination informed deeply by Scripture or by the experience of life within a worshipping community for a long period of time. Even fewer have grown up in the Church. So, while they may have tremendous faith — and it takes a great deal of faith to put oneself forward for the ministry in the Church of England these days — they often aren’t native to the Church. Their way of understanding themselves and the world is typically formed within the same culture as everybody else: late modern consumerism. 

More here-

https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2018/02/28/schools-for-the-imagination/

Episcopal diocese's newest priest grateful for ministry

From Western Mass-

The Rev. Victoria Ix is communications director for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, and for the last six months has served as deacon at Grace Episcopal Church here.

On Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Boltwood Avenue church, Ix will become the diocese's newest priest when diocesan Bishop Douglas Fisher ordains her to that ministry.

Fisher called the liturgy for the ordination of a priest a "powerful one."

"Near the start of the service at Grace Church, I will ask the congregation 'Is it your will that Victoria be ordained a priest?' I anticipate a packed church and a thunderous reply 'It is!,'" Fisher said.

He added, "I'm confident that will be the response because Vicki was born for this mission."

"Later in the liturgy I will read the instructions of what a priest is to do which includes proclaiming the Word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and 'to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor,'" Fisher said.

More here-

http://www.masslive.com/living/index.ssf/2017/12/episcopal_dioceses_newest_priest_grateful_for_ministry.html

Anglican Church ordains five into priesthood

From Ghana-

The Anglican Diocese of Tamale under the leadership of Rt. Reverend Dr. Jacob Ayeebo has ordained five newly trained ministers into priesthood.

At a packed service held at the St Johns Anglican Church at Yelwoko in the Upper East Region, Rt. Rev Ayeebo challenged the clergy to remain courageous and stand by the biblical principles to expose the social ills of the country.
He observed that the high level of lawlessness coupled with the blatant misuse of state resources among other immoral acts requires the support of the clergy in dealing with such social issues aside evangelism.

Correspondent Isaac Asare witnessed the ceremony and filed the following report for Radio Ghana.

The ceremony to usher in the five newest ordinances in the Anglican Communion was held under the distinguished patronage of the Episcopal Diocesan Bishop of Oklahoma in the United States, Rt. Rev Dr Edward Koniecryn.


More here-

http://www.gbcghana.com/1.11498746

Methodist Church appoints first transgender minister

From The Telegraph-

A university chaplain has become the Methodist Church's first transgender minister after hiding her true identity for more than four decades.

Joy Everingham, 46, spent years secretly applying lipstick and wearing women's clothes before finally coming out three yea

She first announced that she planned to transition while training to become a minister, before becoming ordained last summer.
rs ago.

It is the first time a transgender person has been appointed as a minister in the church with the church's knowledge.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/17/methodist-church-appoints-first-transgender-minister/

Priesthood: What It Takes To Thrive

From The Diocese of Washington-

A luminary bishop of the 1970s and 80s, John Coburn of Massachusetts, was once asked if he had a motto in life. He hadn't thought about it before, he said, but upon reflection he realized that he did: You never can tell.

He used two illustrations to make his point. "I've presided over dozens of marriage ceremonies," he said. "I know that a percentage of those marriages ended in divorce. But if I were to have guessed which marriages would make it and which ones wouldn't, at least 50% of the time I would have guessed wrong. Some of the couples that seemed ideally suited for each other didn't make it past 5 years; others whose relationship seemed rocky at best have gone on to have long and healthy marriages. You never can tell."

"I've presided at many ordination services," he continued. "Some priests whom I assumed would be mediocre at best have gone on to serve with faithful and fruitful distinction. A few of our brightest stars are now in jail. You never can tell."

The Diocese of Washington has identified seven qualities and attributes that we believe the Episcopal Church needs now in its ordained leaders. These seven qualities have one thing in common: they are indicators of resilience.

More here-

https://www.edow.org/about/bishop-mariann/writings/2017/06/22/priesthood-what-it-takes-thrive

Number training for priesthood exceeds hopes

From The Church Times-

THE number of people expected to start training for the priesthood in the autumn has risen by 14 per cent, the Ministry Division announced yesterday. The growth has exceeded hopes in the division, which is seeking a 50-per-cent increase on the 2015 figures by 2020.

This year, 543 men and women have been recommended for training, compared with 476 last year. A central plank of the Renewal and Reform agenda is to reach 750 by 2020, but also to lower the average age, and encourage vocations from younger women, and those from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds (News, 7 October).

The new figures include a 17-per-cent increase in women coming forward. Of the 543, 52 per cent are women, and women make up 38 per cent of those aged under 32, compared with a historic average of 22 per cent. The goal is for half of all ordinands to fall into this age bracket; it is currently 25 per cent. Five per cent of recommended candidates described themselves as BAME: an increase of two per cent, but not statistically significant, given the small numbers.

More here-

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/16-june/news/uk/number-training-for-priesthood-exceeds-hopes

Presbyterians Approve Ordination of Gay People

From The New York Times-

After 33 years of debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to change its constitution and allow openly gay people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons.

The outcome is a reversal from only two years ago, when a majority of the church’s regions, known as presbyteries, voted against ordaining openly gay candidates.

This time, 19 of the church’s 173 presbyteries switched their votes from no to yes in recent months. The Twin Cities presbytery, which covers Minneapolis and St. Paul, cast the deciding vote at its meeting on Tuesday. The vote was 205 to 56, with 3 abstentions.

Cynthia Bolbach, moderator of the church’s General Assembly, its highest legislative body, said in a phone interview from Minneapolis after the vote: “Everyone was civil. There was no applause, no cheering. It was just reflective of the fact that we are moving forward one other step.”

More here-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/us/11presbyterian.html

ANGLICAN ORDERS NOT 'INVALID' SAYS CARDINAL, OPENING WAY FOR REVISION OF CURRENT CATHOLIC POSITION

From The Tablet-

One of the Vatican’s top legal minds has opened the way for a revision of the Catholic position on Anglican orders by stressing they should not be written off as “invalid.” 

In a recently published book, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, calls into question Pope Leo XIII’s 1896 papal bull that Anglican orders are “absolutely null and utterly void.”

“When someone is ordained in the Anglican Church and becomes a parish priest in a community, we cannot say that nothing has happened, that everything is ‘invalid’,” the cardinal says in volume of papers and discussions that took place in Rome as part of the “Malines Conversations,” an ecumenical forum.

“This about the life of a person and what he has given …these things are so very relevant!”

For decades Leo XIII’s remarks have proved to be one of the major stumbling blocks in Catholic-Anglican unity efforts, as it seemed to offer very little room for interpretation or revision. 

More here-

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/7068/0/anglican-orders-not-invalid-says-cardinal-opening-way-for-revision-of-current-catholic-position-

The clergy who were told to step off the ladder

From The Church Times-

IN 1983, Tony, a candidate for ordination from the diocese of Bradford, was told by the diocesan director of ordinands (DDO) that, if he wanted to train for the priesthood, he would first have to sell his house.

The money raised from the sale would be needed to look after his family and cover his costs while training, Tony was told. “Like an idiot, I did it,” he said last month.

The house was sold for £8000; £2000 went to pay off the rest of the mortgage, leaving just £6000 to fund the family during his time in theological college. Before the end of his first year of study, the money raised from selling his house had run out, forcing him to ask his bishop for an emergency handout to stay on at college.

When Tony checked online recently, the same house changed hands recently for more than £300,000 — an increase in value of 3650 per cent in 30 years.

After a string of setbacks, and a breakdown, he chose early retirement in 2005. Four years later, his wife, Susan, who is also a priest, joined him in retirement because of ill health, meaning that the couple needed to find their own home for the first time since 1983.

More here-

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/10-march/news/uk/the-clergy-who-were-told-to-step-off-the-ladder

Pope Francis Expresses Openness to Ordaining Married Men in Some Cases

From National Catholic Register-

In his first ever interview with a German newspaper, Pope Francis has said the issue of ordaining some married men as priests needs to be considered, but stressed that “voluntary celibacy” is not the solution to the vocations crisis that exists in many parts of the world.

Speaking in the interview to be published tomorrow (March 9) in Die Zeit, Germany’s leading left-leaning newspaper, the Holy Father said the shortage of priests around the world is an “enormous problem” that must be resolved, but added that “voluntary celibacy is not the answer.”

However, he said the issue of viri probati, married men proven in faith and virtue who could be ordained to the priesthood, is a “possibility” that “we have to think about.”

“We must also determine which tasks they can undertake, for example in remote communities,” the Pope said. 

More here-

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-expresses-openness-to-ordaining-married-men-in-some-cases

First newly-ordained Episcopal priest in years wishes for interfaith unity

From Utah-

When one thinks of religion in downtown Provo, the thought unsurprisingly turns to the LDS Provo City Center Temple. But just a few blocks away at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, a congregation of Christians meets each week to worship and sing praises in their own way.

On Saturday, the Episcopal Church was the site of a rare occasion. The Rev. Timothy Yanni was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in a service rich with worship, praise and rites sacred to the church. In general, only a few priest ordinations occur each year, but in Provo, this was the first priest ordination in several years.

“I feel calm, I feel very serene,” Yanni said shortly after his ordination service. “I don’t feel nearly as anxious as I was this morning.”

More here-

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/faith/first-newly-ordained-episcopal-priest-in-years-wishes-for-interfaith/article_3d6f4741-7213-534c-8489-286cdc7943da.html

What is the future for Episcopal Clergy?

From Episcopal Cafe-

An Invitation to the Church …

… to wonder and ponder with the Board for Transition Ministry

Our goal is to invite the church to think out loud about how we bring ordained leaders to our churches. From our experience, study and prayer, we recognize these to be important issues in our time. We invite dialogue in the many and diverse ways we have available: conversations on social media, at church gatherings such as meetings of diocesan transition ministers, diocesan conventions, the House of Bishops, and other leaders in our church. We offer this not as a declaration, but as an invitation to dialogue.


More here-


http://www.episcopalcafe.com/what-is-the-future-for-episcopal-clergy/

COCKTAIL THEOLOGY

From First Things-

A man down the bar from me turned and said, “Is that a costume, or are you really a priest?” I have often been asked this question when tucked away in my corner seat at the bar at New York’s Death & Co., a good spot for reading and having a crisp martini. Even months from Halloween, people in the East Village assume that a man in clerical garb must be in costume, but once they learn that I am a coconspirator in the world of cocktail enthusiasm, fine conversation flows.

It started in Washington, D.C. Derek Brown, one of the forces behind the recent craft cocktail revival, wanted to complete his confirmation while I was a priest at his parish. As I instructed him in the Catholic faith, he initiated me into the mysteries of craft cocktails. “A priest walks into a bar” has launched a thousand mediocre jokes. But since those days of reading Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity with Derek, and being invited by him to the openings of new speakeasies, I’ve discovered that “A priest walks into a bar” can also be a perfectly appropriate beginning to giving thanks at the end of a day (a good or bad one), to finding friendship in a foreign city, and even to bringing a bit of charity and Christian fellowship to places where communities have long gathered.

More here-

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/12/cocktail-theology

FRANCIS URGES BISHOPS TO VET PRIESTS AHEAD OF ORDINATION

From The Tablet-

Pope Francis has urged bishops to carefully vet who they ordain as priests so they ensure the world is served by “mature and balanced” clergy.

“When it comes to vocations to the priesthood and those entering the seminary, I beg you to discern the truth, to have a shrewd and cautious look,” Francis told a Vatican conference on vocations this week, adding that this discernment should be done without “shallowness or superficiality.”

He went on: "especially to my brother bishops, I say: vigilance and prudence. The Church and the world need mature and balanced priests, pastors who are intrepid and generous, capable of closeness, listening and mercy.”

The Pope has previously told bishops to focus less on the numbers of vocations but the “quality” of the men coming forward, and he has called for the next synod of bishops in 2018 to be focussed on vocational discernment and young people.

Before then, however, the Congregation for Clergy - the body which organised the conference which the Pope spoke at this week - are to release a major document on seminary formation. This has been prepared by Mexican Archbishop Jorge Patron Wong whom the Pope gave responsibility for seminaries urging him to undertake an overhaul of the system. 

More here-

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/6299/0/francis-urges-bishops-to-vet-priests-ahead-of-ordination

Native American woman ordained to Episcopal diaconate

From Wyoming-

Roxanne Jimerson-Friday is set to become the first Native American woman from the Wind River Indian Reservation to be ordained to the transitional diaconate of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming.

Ceremonies begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Laramie, with the Rt. Rev. John S. Smylie, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, presiding. Several others in the process of becoming priests will be ordained during the ceremony as well.

Jimerson-Friday’s ordination is a major step in the process of becoming a priest. Upon being ordained a priest, she will be the first Shoshone tribal member to do so, according to a media release.

More here-

http://trib.com/news/local/casper/native-american-woman-ordained-to-episcopal-diaconate/article_14173d4c-5c6e-52dd-bdc8-93a04568afe4.html

For Lost Boy of Sudan, faith carried him from civil war to path to Episcopal priesthood

From AP-

A man who was one of thousands of children in Sudan forced to flee or be inducted into the army during the country's civil war was ordained recently as a deacon by the Episcopal Diocese of Utah.

For Gabriel Garang Atem, 36, the achievement marked another step on a long road where his faith has sustained him as he navigated the dangers of a war in Sudan, famine and life in refugee camps.

As an orphan in 1987, he and thousands of other young children were forced to flee Sudan on foot to Ethiopia.

Thousands of the children, mostly boys, lost their lives as they faced attacks from rebels and wild animals, drowned in rivers, or succumbed to malnourishment, dehydration and exposure to the elements.

More here-

http://www.startribune.com/sudan-refugee-ordained-as-episcopal-deacon-in-utah/361723371/

Scottish bishops band together to boost full-time ordination training

From Scotland-

The Scottish Episcopal Church's bishops have this year banded together to appeal to its members to invest in the Church's future.

For this year’s Bishops’ Lent Appeals, all seven diocesan bishops have agreed to support the training and formation of those entering ministerial training in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

2014 saw the creation of the new Scottish Episcopal Institute (SEI), which replaced the former Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church (TISEC).

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2015/02/scottish-bishops-band-together-to-boost-full-time-ordination-training.aspx