You are here: Home > News > The Harvest May/June 2009 > Kansas School for Ministry

School for Ministry finishes first year back

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

The Kansas School for Ministry just completed its first year of classes after a two-year hiatus, offering academic instruction to eight people preparing for ordination — five as deacons and three as priests.

KSM had been the mainstay of education for ordination candidates and lay people in the Diocese of Kansas from its creation in 1997 until it ceased classes in May 2006, the victim of a funding shortfall after a gift that helped cover operational costs was exhausted. But even more, there was a growing awareness that ministry needs in the diocese called for an expanded vision of what the school offered.

The students in the new KSM were in residence at the Bethany Place Conference Center in Topeka for 10 weekend sessions that offered time for worship and building community as well as thorough academic work.

The Rev. Andrew Grosso, rector of Trinity, Atchison, serves as chair of the school’s steering committee. He said this relaunching year has helped provide clarity about the scope of KSM’s mission. While classes this year were designated only for those seeking ordination, plans call for expanding offerings that will provide lay people across the diocese the same level of classes to enhance their ministry.

Bishop Dean E. Wolfe praised KSM’s work to restart ordination-track coursework. “I am thrilled by the progress being made by Andrew Grosso and the faculty of the Kansas School for Ministry,” he said. “They have done heroic work in this year by providing 10 courses during this transitional period. I am convinced that we are well on our way to achieving the lofty goals we have set.”

Ongoing formation

Part of the challenge during KSM’s restructuring, Grosso said, was seeing how the school fits into all the needs of someone preparing for ordination. “Formation is about more than just intellectual development,” Grosso said.

He thinks his committee is zeroing in on a comprehensive approach to preparing people, at the local level, to become deacons and priests in parishes in the Diocese of Kansas.

Grosso said the steering committee has identified four crucial elements in the formation of new clergy:

- academic formation — the coursework KSM provides that enables students to meet the canonical requirements for academic proficiency;

- certification formation — making sure that required seminars in anti-racism, prevention of sexual harassment and exploitation, and safe church practices are met;

- community formation — bonding with fellow students and one’s sponsoring community; and

- practical formation — learning things like liturgical practice, leadership and communication skills.

Current plans call for people preparing to be deacons to take two years of KSM classes, with priests taking three (the extra year will offer more in-depth study of Scripture, theology, church history and pastoral skills).

But formation won’t stop with ordination and the end of KSM classes, Grosso said. Instead the other three elements — certification, community and practical formation — will continue after ordination to help new clergy have the best possible chance to succeed.

Just as formation won’t stop with ordination, Grosso said learning can’t stop with the end of KSM classes. Students are in residence for 24 hours once a month, 10 months a year, for two years, he noted.

Students, of course, spend many extra hours of time outside of class studying and preparing materials and papers.

While the courses go far beyond the basics and provide a thorough, critical introduction to such topics as Scripture, Anglican identity, church history and theology, they still add up to only 20 days of in-house instruction prior to ordination.

But if the school does its job right, Grosso says, people will want to become lifelong learners. “We want people to come out thinking, ‘I’ve learned a lot and want to learn more, and I’ve been given the tools to do that.’”

One key piece of the KSM puzzle that’s still under discussion is funding, the problem that helped end classes two years ago. Grosso said this year’s program has operated on a shoestring, using money in the steering committee’s portion of the diocesan budget to pay faculty a modest stipend and to cover meals during KSM sessions.

The committee is working to find the right funding balance between diocesan contribution, student tuition and support from sponsoring parishes, Grosso said, that will allow the school to operate effectively and efficiently.

Good reviews from all

So far the new KSM is drawing rave reviews from students and praise from steering committee members and faculty.

Barbara Gibson from Grace Cathedral, Topeka, and Jeff Roper of St. James’, Wichita, are two of the five students in the deacon ordination process. Roper said his first year at KSM has been “a great experience,” and Gibson said she had “rarely worked harder or cared more deeply about the subject matter assigned in an academic program.”

Both praised the comprehensive nature of the coursework and also noted the sense of community being created among students. Roper said, “We have formed lasting friendships and have created a support network for each other as we pursue our callings.”

Students have discussed the role of ordained ministry with a number of priest faculty members, something Gibson said she looks forward to doing with parish deacons as well.

Steering committee members Larry Bingham, St. Michael’s, Mission; Melissa Tubbs Loya, Grace Cathedral, Topeka; and the Rev. Catherine Caimano, St. John’s, Wichita, used words like “impressed” and “excited” to describe the school’s first year back in operation.

Caimano said the committee has taken a rigorous look at education for formation in the diocese, centered on the questions “What is the mission of the church?” and “What does a well-formed deacon, priest and lay person look like?”

This effort isn’t starting from scratch, of course. Bingham noted the “wonderful tradition” established in the early days of KSM under the leadership of Deacons Jim Upton, Bob Hirst and Charles Pearce and praised the ability of today’s school to “blend our past tradition with the vision for the future.”

Tubbs Loya, who taught a class on the Old Testament in addition to her committee duties, praised the commitment of those who have planned the school’s new coursework as well as those who have been its students. “I was struck again and again by the dedication of the participants in KSM, some of whom just recently began their discernment process,” she said.

Caimano quoted Bishop Wolfe in calling this KSM “2.0” — an upgraded version that takes the basic KSM structure but offers enhancements in “scope and organization,” she said.

Future expansion

Grosso said while this first year back in operation has focused on those preparing for ordination — and will for the next few years as well — the goal is to make KSM a place of theological education for everyone in the diocese. He said, “Our work at present is focused on identifying ways to make the school a center for theological education that equips people for a variety of ministries and for sustained growth in the life of faith.”

Some efforts this past year to offer lay continuing education weren’t successful, Grosso admitted, but the committee remains committed to finding the right way to make that available.

In the near future the school hopes to offer special classes designed for those in licensed lay ministries, such as lay preacher, worship leader, Eucharistic minister and Eucharistic visitor. Offerings beyond that will require some additional planning, he said.

Caimano said she is excited about what KSM can offer to everyone in the diocese and the wider church. She said, “I see KSM as being an example to other dioceses, and the larger church, of how we can take a fresh look at theological education, and deliver it in our own context without sacrificing the basic need for all clergy and lay leaders to be intimately familiar with Scripture, tradition and theological thinking.”