March 2021 Course Descriptions
March Overview
- The Zoom Focus Weekend meets March 13-14, on Saturday from 8:30-6:00 and on Sunday from 8:30-12:15. The detailed weekend schedule is here.
- If Covid conditions improve enough so that we are able to meet safely face-to-face, we will notify all enrolled students about that option as soon as the decision is made.
- Classes begin on Monday, February 15.
- Classes end on Friday, April 9
- Tuition (on Zoom) is $100 to audit, $130 for credit. Tuition (in person) is $100 to audit, $210 for credit (includes overnight accommodations and meals)
- Complete a short application for the $100 Jim Upton lay scholarship.
- Register online for classes.
Congregational Leadership
This seminar-style class is designed to assist pastoral leaders in: understanding more clearly the distinction between technical and adaptive challenges and changes; exploring and making progress on a current or looming challenge or dilemma; learning about their appropriate role in conflict; addressing how, in this time of dramatic change, we as leaders can remain attentive to the voices of those around us while listening even more closely to God’s call to us.
Our experience will be our classroom. Please read that sentence again. This class will be a safe, supportive environment; students will benefit to the degree that they invest themselves in the learning process. Where do you face a difficult challenge? Where do you feel stuck and want to make progress? Dealing with this dilemma will be the heart of the class, which is for anyone in a position of leadership – ordained and unordained, official and unofficial; veteran pastors and those in the initial stages of preparation; Parish Ministry Associate students and those simply interested in leadership.
Book List
Contemporary Catechumenate
Some say that the Adult Catechumenate is the best kept secret within the Episcopal and Lutheran churches. Two resolutions from the 1988 General Convention encouraged the Catechumenate to be the normative way to initiate adults for baptism, confirmation, and reception in the Episcopal Church. Rooted in the experience of the early Christian Church, we will explore the Catechumenate formation process, gain a pastoral sense of its liturgical rites, and begin to apply this knowledge to our pastoral settings. A hybrid learning model will be used - calling for some work before and after our time together.
Book List
Sacramental Theology
This course addresses the basic principles of sacramental theology from a classical Anglican standpoint, the historical development of the Book of Common Prayer as a response to those principles, and various practical considerations which arise in connection with the Daily Office and the administration of the Sacraments, especially Baptism and Holy Eucharist.
Reading List (required texts)
Social Ministry II
This course will apply concepts learned in Social Ministry I to the participant’s particular local context. Students will develop ministry partnerships within their own local community and will learn basic community organizing principles such as asset mapping. This course will use, in part, the Called to Transformation model of Asset Based Community Development developed by the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Relief & Development.
Book List
This seminar-style class is designed to assist pastoral leaders in: understanding more clearly the distinction between technical and adaptive challenges and changes; exploring and making progress on a current or looming challenge or dilemma; learning about their appropriate role in conflict; addressing how, in this time of dramatic change, we as leaders can remain attentive to the voices of those around us while listening even more closely to God’s call to us.
Our experience will be our classroom. Please read that sentence again. This class will be a safe, supportive environment; students will benefit to the degree that they invest themselves in the learning process. Where do you face a difficult challenge? Where do you feel stuck and want to make progress? Dealing with this dilemma will be the heart of the class, which is for anyone in a position of leadership – ordained and unordained, official and unofficial; veteran pastors and those in the initial stages of preparation; Parish Ministry Associate students and those simply interested in leadership.
Book List
- O’Malley, Ed; and Cebula, Amanda. Your Leadership Edge: Lead Anytime, Anywhere, KLC Press, ISBN 978-0-9889777-5-4
- Bolsinger, Tod. Canoeing the Mountains, InterVarsity Press, ISBN 978-0-8308-4147-9
- Beaumont, Susan. How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 9781538127674
- Novogratz, Jacqueline. Manifesto for a Moral Revolution (esp chs 7 and 8), ISBN 9781250222879
- The Rev. Roger Gustafson is bishop emeritus of the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Prior to serving as bishop he was a co-pastor of Advent Lutheran Church, Olathe, for 23 years. He earned his Master of Divinity degree with honors from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. He has served as dean of the Kansas City-area ELCA churches, and chaired the Church Planters missions team in the Kansas City area. He is certified as an ELCA coach.
Contemporary Catechumenate
Some say that the Adult Catechumenate is the best kept secret within the Episcopal and Lutheran churches. Two resolutions from the 1988 General Convention encouraged the Catechumenate to be the normative way to initiate adults for baptism, confirmation, and reception in the Episcopal Church. Rooted in the experience of the early Christian Church, we will explore the Catechumenate formation process, gain a pastoral sense of its liturgical rites, and begin to apply this knowledge to our pastoral settings. A hybrid learning model will be used - calling for some work before and after our time together.
Book List
- Go Make Disciples: An invitation to Baptismal Living, Augsburg Press, ISBN 978-1-4514-2612-0
- Turrell, James F. Celebrating the Rites of Initiation: A Practical Guide. Church Publishing, ISBN 978-0-89869-875-6
- Benedict, Daniel T. Come to the Waters: Baptism and our Ministry of Welcoming Seekers and Making Disciples. Discipleship Resources, ISBN 0-88177-179-1
- Access to the current Book of Occasional Services of the Episcopal Church: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/lm_book_of_occasional_services_2018.pdf
- The Rev. Larry Ehren is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of West Missouri, currently serving St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church. He is a graduate of BKSM in Anglican Studies, has a Master of Divinity degree from Boston College's Graduate School of Ministry and Theology, and undergraduate degree from Saint Louis University in Psychology and Philosophy. He currently is completing his Doctor of Ministry in Christian Spirituality at the Virginia Theological Seminary. He has pastoral experience with the Catechumenate in a variety of settings. He is Vice President of Journey to Baptismal Living (www.journeytobaptism.org), an interdenominational Christian resource for the Catechumenate, and is a Catechist of Baptized for Life (www.baptizedforlife.org), a Lilly Foundation discipleship initiative within the Episcopal Church).
Sacramental Theology
This course addresses the basic principles of sacramental theology from a classical Anglican standpoint, the historical development of the Book of Common Prayer as a response to those principles, and various practical considerations which arise in connection with the Daily Office and the administration of the Sacraments, especially Baptism and Holy Eucharist.
Reading List (required texts)
- Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and
Ceremonies of the Church, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David,
according to the use of the The Episcopal Church [1979]. Church Hymnal
Corporation, New York: 1979. - Bradshaw, Paul F. Early Christian Worship: A Basic Introduction to Ideas and Practice. Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN, 2010.
- McCabe, Herbert. The New Creation. Continuum: New York, 2010.
- Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy,
revised edition. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press: Crestwood, 1973.
- Davies, J.G. (ed.) The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship. The
Westminster Press: Philadelphia, revised 1979. (A basic reference with short
articles and bibliographies on matters of liturgy and worship.) - Davison, Andrew. Why Sacraments? Cascade Books: Eugene, OR, 2013. (A very
readable piece of Anglican Thomism on the sacraments.) - Dix, Dom Gregory. The Shape of the Liturgy. Various editions. (First published in
1945, this book is the godfather of the liturgical renewal. Dix’s classic “shape”--
taken, blessed, broken, given—is still talked about.) - Huntington, William Reed. A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer, Together
with Certain Papers Illustrative of Liturgical Revision, 1878-1892. Thomas
Whitaker: New York, 1893. The text of this resource is available online at <http://
justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/short_history_BCP.htm>. (The best short
introduction to the Prayer Book tradition available by one of the most influential
Episcopal clergyman of the 19th century and principle architect of the 1892 BCP.) - Pitre, Brant. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. New York: Doubleday,
2011. (In many ways an extension and specification of some of McCabe’s
theology with a more historical slant.)
- The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Thomas currently serves as the Interim Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Eau Claire, WI. Previously he served in roles with Saint Francis Ministries and as the Dean of Christ Cathedral, Salina, KS. He was Assistant Rector at Grace Church, NYC and earned his M.Div. (‘07) and Th.D. (‘11) from the General Theological Seminary in New York. His research interests include patristic and early medieval theology. He lives in Eden Prairie, MN with his wife Holly and their four children.
Social Ministry II
This course will apply concepts learned in Social Ministry I to the participant’s particular local context. Students will develop ministry partnerships within their own local community and will learn basic community organizing principles such as asset mapping. This course will use, in part, the Called to Transformation model of Asset Based Community Development developed by the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Relief & Development.
Book List
- McNight, John and Block, Peter. The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, 2012.
- Called to Transformation: An Asset Based Approach to Engaging Church and Community, provided by facilitators
- The Very Rev. Charles A. (Chas) Marks is Rector of St. Augustine's Church in Kansas City, MO and also serves as a Senior Advisor for Community & Church Relations for the Saint Francis Foundation. Fr. Chas is the Dean of the Northwest-Metro Deanery of the Diocese of West Missouri. He is a graduate of Wichita State University, Saint Meinrad School of Theology, and The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry. Prior to his ordination to the priesthood in 2015, Fr. Chas worked in social services in Kansas City, MO and Memphis, TN. He spent 10 years managing programs that assist homeless and runaway youth in the Kansas City metropolitan area and also served on the Advisory Board of the National Safe Place Network. Fr. Chas has presented at several national conferences on issues around homeless youth and advocacy. He is a certified facilitator of Called to Transformation: An Asset-Based Approach to Engaging Church & Community.
- The Rev. Deacon Teresa Houser