Bishop Kemper School for Ministry
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May 2019  Course Descriptions

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KSM welcomes anyone to take courses with us for personal enrichment or continuing education!

We encourage you to experience the remarkable community of learning, worship and fellowship that makes BKSM such a remarkable place for formation.

Did you know that scholarships are available for students taking classes for personal enrichment?

May courses begin officially on April 15, the focus weekend takes place May 11-12, and final assignments are due June 7.

While the weekend begins with breakfast at 7:30 for students on ordination, lay certificate and PMA tracks, course instruction does not begin until 1:00 p.m., which gives you the flexibility of driving to Topeka on Saturday morning if you  take a class for personal enrichment. 

That being said, you are welcome to spend the night at Upton Hall on Friday night, and join us for breakfast and morning prayer on Saturday morning.  While the 8:45 colloquium session is a closed group for students on ordination and lay certificate tracks, you are encouraged to join us at 10:15 for our praxis session, which addresses some practical area of ministry.

If you would like to audit a course, the tuition is $100. If you would like to take the class for credit, the tuition is $180. The cost includes meals and overnight accommodations at Upton Hall on Friday and Saturday night (on a space-available basis).  If you wish to take the class for credit, we encourage you to enroll by August 13. If you wish to audit the class, you may register at any time prior to the focus weekend. However, your learning experience will be better if you have time to complete the assigned readings for the class.

Get started by completing the online course registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Very Rev. Dr. Don Compier, BKSM dean, at bksmdean2@gmail.com or (816) 217-4053.

Anglican Spirituality
This course focuses on the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church as a prime source for personal and congregational growth in God's love.
Book List             
  • The Book of Common Prayer (BCP)
  • Prayer Book Spirituality, ed. J. Robert Wright (Church Publishing)
  • Recommended:
    Commentary on the American Prayer Book by Marion Hatchett (HarperOne)
Your Instructor The Very Rev. Dr. Don H. Compier (Ph.D. in theology, Emory University) is Dean of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry. He also serves as Canon Theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas and presides at the Spanish service at St. Paul’s in Kansas City, Kansas. Previously, Compier taught Master’s and Ph.D. courses in theology, philosophy, and modern church history at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. He has also offered classes at Saint Paul School of Theology and Eden Theological Seminary. He led the graduate program in religion at Graceland University from 2002 until 2014, developing an innovative online curriculum. He is currently researching the history of Eucharistic thought in Anglicanism.

Diversity, Justice and the Church's Mission
This course provides an introductory survey on historical and contemporary racism in America and the role the Episcopal Church has played both in supporting and dismantling such racism. 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 and racial harmony. We will also discuss how to move congregations down the continuum from “exclusive” to “transformed” spaces. This workshop satisfies the canonical anti-racism requirements for clergy and lay leaders.
Book List             
  • Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me.
  • Williams, Chad;  Williams, Kidada; and  Blain, Keisha (eds.). The Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence. University of Georgia Press: 2106.
Your Instructor
  • 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

Doctrines of the Third Person
The implications of pneumatology for thinking about Christian theology have changed drastically across Christian history. This course will explore the theological implications of pneumatology in terms of historical, dogmatic, and contemporary constructive theologies. Not only will we consider how doctrines of the third person relate to understandings of the first and second persons of the trinity, we will more closely consider how formulations of the doctrine of the third person have often been considered in light of the systematic ramifications of this doctrine for other traditional loci such as ecclesiology, revelation, and salvation.
Book List
  • Shelly Rambo, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-664-23503-1).
  • Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8010-2448-1).
Your Instructor
As one who loves working with students from all sorts of backgrounds, Dr. Adam Pryor is Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Core Education at Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS. A constructive theologian, his primary areas of research interest include the intersection of theology and science, phenomenologies of the body, interfaith dialogue, and feminist theology. Specifically he pursues various forms of correlational theology that considers how a given contemporary issue or field effect reflection of classic loci of Christian systematic theology. He is the author of two books--The God Who Lives (Pickwick Publishing, 2014) and Body of Christ Incarnate for You (Lexington, 2016)--that follow this structure. His current research is exploring the implications of astrobiology for accounts of the imago Dei


Register for May Courses
Address for Tuition Payments/Donations:
The Very Rev. Don Compier, BKSM Dean
410 SE Independence Ave.

Lee’s Summit, MO 64063
Physical Address:
Bishop Kemper School for Ministry

701 SW 8th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66603

The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry is a collaborative venture of the Episcopal Dioceses of Kansas, West Missouri, Nebraska and Western Kansas.
BKSM also partners with the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
BKSM offers classes and programs to educate people for church leadership in both lay and ordained vocations.