Experiment in Ministry Program Developed in Atlanta
Diocesan Press Service. October 28, 1974 [74284]
The Rev. Charles Hackett
ATLANTA, Ga. -- In the past few years, more people have wished to enter seminary and be ordained priests than the Church is able to support in full-time paid ministry. This has raised two urgent questions for every diocese. First, what kind of process should take place whereby the ablest people are selected for the ministry? Second, how should the Church as an institution deal with those brothers and sisters in Christ who will not eventually earn their livings as full-time employees of parishes or related Church structures ?
The selection process in the past has sometimes been arbitrary and authoritarian. A college graduate must first of all be convinced that he or she is called of God to be a priest, and then must go to their rector, then to the bishop, then to the standing committee of the diocese, and then on to three years of seminary. Finally they must pass the General Ordination Examinations administered by the Episcopal Church nationwide, and be recommended for ordination by the diocesan commission on ministry and standing committee following those examinations. At each stage, some authority is passing judgment on persons who believe that they are called of God to be priests.
In response, the Diocese of Atlanta has sought some alternative solution whereby people might test their vocations to the priesthood carefully and with an eye to personal and spiritual growth, while at the same time allowing the Church to find those whom God has best suited to the peculiar demands of the ordained ministry. The program is called "Experiment in Ministry," and so far, it has involved 25 Episcopalians in a search for their calling.
The goal of the " Experiment in Ministry " is to allow everyone who feels they may have a vocation to ordination to test their suitability in several situations of ministry while getting intense feedback from supervisors, theologians and peers who are doing the same work.
Here is how the program works. A participant is asked to keep his or her Job, and commit six hours per week for one full year to the program. The year is divided into four academic quarters of 12 weeks each. In the first quarter, a participant spends four hours per week working as a chaplain in a mental health facility, and two hours per week meeting with everyone else in the program, the hospital chaplain-supervisor, and the Rev. Charles Hackett, the director of the program and member of the faculty of the School of Theology at Emory University.
The second quarter places participants in a setting of urban ministry under the supervision of the Urban Training Organization, and the third quarter in an Episcopal parish designated as a "Learning Parish" because of its resources and its willingness to give the time of its clergy and laity in supervisory work. During these two quarters, the participants continue to work four hours a week in ministry and spend two hours per week in group reflection under the leadership of their institutional supervisor and Fr. Hackett.
In the fourth quarter, the group meets for three hours per week for 12 weeks of "putting it together" and deciding on their future. Some will go on to seminary, others will remain where they are, hopefully bringing to their daily lives an enriched sense of Christian ministry. This is a decision in which peers, the supervisors, the director and each participant share.
At the end of each quarter, everyone evaluates everyone else in an open group setting. Participants learn a great deal about differences which may exist between what they think they are doing and what others perceive them to be doing. Participants also learn much about their own feelings, their talents, and their needs.
The "Experiment" is now beginning its second year of operation. Twelve people are participating, having begun their first quarter's work at the Georgia Mental Health Institute.
Thirteen people began the program last year, and of that number seven are in seminary and one other, who had already completed seminary, is now involved in a Deacon-in-Training year and will be ordained to the diaconate this month.
The program is fully accredited through the School of Theology at Emory University, through which the services of Fr. Hackett, and the supervisory personnel are made available to the Diocese. Participants in the program register as special students at Emory, and their work in the program is transferable toward a Master of Divinity degree should they continue their theological studies.
The cost to each participant is $600 for the year. Meetings and "on sight ministry" are arranged so that participants can keep their regular jobs, and so that people may "test" their notions about ministry without disturbing their lives. The program is partially funded through a grant by the Episcopal Church Foundation, and has attracted national interest both in the Episcopal Church and other denominations.