Summer Session 2018
BKSM's summer session is designed to provide continuing education opportunities for ordained clergy, current seminarians, and lay students. Other than the Diversity and Inclusion course, these offerings are not part of the regular schedule of courses, and they vary from year to year.
The cost for summer courses is $100 to audit or $180 if taken for credit. This price includes meals and overnight accommodations at Upton Hall. Auditors are expected to prepare for class by completing all reading assignments prior to the face-to-face session, but are not required to write papers or complete final projects.
PREPARE/ENRICH Facilitator Training
New schedule: only meeting Saturday, June 16
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
For thirty-five years, PREPARE/ENRICH has been the #1 guide for helping couples prepare for marriage as they explore and strengthen their relationships. Built on a solid research foundation, this approach provides you an excellent opportunity to add a vital skill to your ministry toolkit and enhance your pastoral work with couples. This workshop provides you with the skills and credentials you need to use the PREPARE/ENRICH materials most effectively. You will learn how to administer the online assessment, interpret couples' reports. provide useful feedback to couples, guide couples' exercises, teach proven relationship skills and work more effectively with couples.
Book List
Grace in Grief
Saturday, July 21
God is found where suffering is. It is clear that Jesus sought out those shunned by society and religion and brought them healing/wholeness. Our culture regularly shuns those suffering from grief and loss (in all its forms) and thus grievers often never encounter God’s healing presence in the midst of pain and isolation. Or as the Buddhist writer Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Without mud, there can be no lotus.” This workshop will explore:
Blogging as Parish Ministry
Saturday, August 4
Have you ever thought that blogging could be a key way to share the Gospel and a critical part of your missional work? Blogs reach readers and engage conversation in ways that Sunday mornings cannot, particularly with those who do not attend your (or any) church. Blogging is also a creative platform for your own spiritual development and sharpening of your pastoral communication skills. Designed for clergy as well as others interested in blogging as a form of ministry, this course will equip you with the theory and practical skills you need to develop and maintain an effective blog – even if you are not particularly tech savvy!
If you take this class for credit, you will be asked to write a paper as well as create/revamp an existing blog on some aspect of faith or religion. This project will enable you to acquire proficiency in using frequent blogging and Scripture-based reflections to engage readers, find your own voice as a blogger, and experience the time commitment and other implications to create and sustain a successful blog as part of your parish ministry.
Book List
Diversity, Justice and the Church's Mission
Saturday, August 11
This course provides an introductory survey on historical and contemporary issues of race and racism as a social and political constructs in the United States of America and the role the Episcopal Church has played both in supporting racist politics/policies as well as in dismantling such racism to build creative and justice-oriented communities. Through our work and conversation, we will explore how systemic oppression, specifically but not limited to racism, plays a role in creating barriers to true multicultural diversity. We will also discuss how to move congregations along the continuum from “exclusive” to “transforming” communities. This workshop satisfies the canonical anti-racism requirements for clergy and lay leaders.
Book List
The cost for summer courses is $100 to audit or $180 if taken for credit. This price includes meals and overnight accommodations at Upton Hall. Auditors are expected to prepare for class by completing all reading assignments prior to the face-to-face session, but are not required to write papers or complete final projects.
PREPARE/ENRICH Facilitator Training
New schedule: only meeting Saturday, June 16
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
For thirty-five years, PREPARE/ENRICH has been the #1 guide for helping couples prepare for marriage as they explore and strengthen their relationships. Built on a solid research foundation, this approach provides you an excellent opportunity to add a vital skill to your ministry toolkit and enhance your pastoral work with couples. This workshop provides you with the skills and credentials you need to use the PREPARE/ENRICH materials most effectively. You will learn how to administer the online assessment, interpret couples' reports. provide useful feedback to couples, guide couples' exercises, teach proven relationship skills and work more effectively with couples.
Book List
- If you wish to stay at Upton Hall on Friday and/or Saturday night, the course fee is $180. However, if you do not need overnight accommodations, the tuition is $140. In addition to tuition, you will need to purchase course materials directly from BKSM the day of class for an additional $70.
- The Reverend Andrew T. O'Connor has served as the Rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Wichita, KS (Diocese of Kansas) since September 2009. A graduate of Boston College and Virginia Theological Seminary, he previously served parishes in the Diocese of Los Angeles. He has been a certified PREPARE/ENRICH Facilitator for 12 years and has used the program successfully with a diverse array of premarital couples; he became a certified Facilitator Trainer in 2016. Fr. O'Connor previously taught the Foundation of Christian Ethics course at BKSM from 2011-2017. He is married to Heather Killpatrick-O'Connor and has five children, Liam, twins Lucian & Hannah, Holly, and Harper.
Grace in Grief
Saturday, July 21
God is found where suffering is. It is clear that Jesus sought out those shunned by society and religion and brought them healing/wholeness. Our culture regularly shuns those suffering from grief and loss (in all its forms) and thus grievers often never encounter God’s healing presence in the midst of pain and isolation. Or as the Buddhist writer Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Without mud, there can be no lotus.” This workshop will explore:
- A brief review of the Theology of Death, focusing on Rahner’s writings.
- Beyond the “Stages of grief,” encountering our own grief and loss.
- Doing vs. Being at the moment of death and funerals/memorials.
- Empowering others and ourselves to journey with those who grieve.
- Resources for those grieving, their caregivers (family, community, parish) and a guide to different cultural and age expressions of grief.
- Coming soon
- The Rev. Tom Baker currently serves as the Director of Spiritual Care at Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, Kansas. Before serving in a number of chaplaincy and director of spiritual care roles, he worked for ABC Sports as a technical/assistant director for Monday Night Football and as a producer/director for Wide World of Sports. Fr. Baker was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1990. He holds an M.Div. from St. Meinrad School of Theology, five units of Clinical Pastoral Education from Johns Hopkins, and Certification in Religion and Medicine from Harvard Medical School.
Blogging as Parish Ministry
Saturday, August 4
Have you ever thought that blogging could be a key way to share the Gospel and a critical part of your missional work? Blogs reach readers and engage conversation in ways that Sunday mornings cannot, particularly with those who do not attend your (or any) church. Blogging is also a creative platform for your own spiritual development and sharpening of your pastoral communication skills. Designed for clergy as well as others interested in blogging as a form of ministry, this course will equip you with the theory and practical skills you need to develop and maintain an effective blog – even if you are not particularly tech savvy!
If you take this class for credit, you will be asked to write a paper as well as create/revamp an existing blog on some aspect of faith or religion. This project will enable you to acquire proficiency in using frequent blogging and Scripture-based reflections to engage readers, find your own voice as a blogger, and experience the time commitment and other implications to create and sustain a successful blog as part of your parish ministry.
Book List
- Walton, Heather. Writing Methods in Theological Reflection. SCM Press: 2014
- Roach, Jonathan. Expressing Theology: Writing Theology that Readers Want to Read. Cascade Books: 2015
- Dr. Douglas McNair is a physician, software engineer/data scientist/applied mathematician, and clinical trialist of a health informatics company in Kansas City. He is an active member of Grace and Holy Trinity in Kansas City, Missouri, and a volunteer at a local children’s hospital. Doug has authored two blogs, one on classical music and the other on the Revised Common Lectionary.
Diversity, Justice and the Church's Mission
Saturday, August 11
This course provides an introductory survey on historical and contemporary issues of race and racism as a social and political constructs in the United States of America and the role the Episcopal Church has played both in supporting racist politics/policies as well as in dismantling such racism to build creative and justice-oriented communities. Through our work and conversation, we will explore how systemic oppression, specifically but not limited to racism, plays a role in creating barriers to true multicultural diversity. We will also discuss how to move congregations along the continuum from “exclusive” to “transforming” communities. This workshop satisfies the canonical anti-racism requirements for clergy and lay leaders.
Book List
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me.
- Douglas, Kelly Brown. Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God.
- Williams, Chad; Williams, Kidada; and Blain, Keisha (eds.). The Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence. University of Georgia Press: 2016.
- The Rev. Marcus Halley serves as rector of Saint Paul's Church on Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis, MN. He holds a B.A. from Johnson C. Smith University, a M.Div from the Interdenominational Theological Center, and a Master of Sacred Theology from the School of Theology at the University of the South. An avid historian, theologian, and writer, Father Marcus wrote his thesis “Lifted Hands, Broken Chains: Exploring the Liberating Theological Praxis of Absalom Jones and the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, 1794 – 1808” which explores how Absalom Jones, the first black Episcopal priest, utilized traditional African religion and Anglican/Episcopal liturgy to craft a liberative theology for the black community in Philadelphia, PA in the late 1700s and early 1800s. To read his thesis, visit https://dspace.sewanee.edu/handle/11005/3625