by the Rev. Canon Patrick Funston
Among my greatest joys at the beginning of the “program year,” is the launch of another year of the celebration of new-in-call clergy that we call Thresholds in Ministry. For the next nine months, at the bishop’s direction, Canon Lisa Senuta and I will gather monthly with deacons and priests from around the diocese who are within the first two years of a new call or appointment. This time with clergy at the beginning of something helps us grow as colleagues and to take advantage of the opportunities presented by a beginning, “the most important part of any work.” (Plato, The Republic)
When I was first ordained, then Canon to the Ordinary Craig Loya gathered new-in-call priests for a monthly program called Fresh Start. Fresh Start was developed in the 90s and launched in the 2000s by a network of transition officers working with the Church Deployment Office and The Episcopal Church Foundation. Fresh Start brought church development and leadership topics to new-in-call clergy and a more detailed history is available on The Episcopal Church Foundation website. Unfortunately, the program lost steam and support and stopped being updated and improved. When he was Canon to the Ordinary, Torey Lightcap formed Clergy Conversations, bringing new-in-call presbyters together with experienced parish priests to continue their formation through case studies and reflection. Unfortunately, Dean Lightcap’s call to Grace Cathedral which led to a gap in the Canon to the Ordinary position along with the COVID-19 pandemic brought Clergy Conversations to an end. Early-post-ordination formation moved to ad hoc mentoring relationships.
Spring 2022 saw Bishop Bascom asking Canon for Spiritual Life and Clergy Care Lisa Senuta and me to re-form Clergy Conversations or its next incarnation. Drawing on our interest, experience, and expertise, we developed Thresholds in Leadership, as a new-in-call formation program. As we reflected on our experiences with Fresh Start, we set an intentional purpose for Thresholds in Leadership: Gather clergy into an ongoing spiritual community to nurture their individual and shared leadership. While all clergy of the Diocese of Kansas are invited to participate, topics are geared toward clergy who have crossed a ministry threshold in the last two years. In the context of mutual, prayerful support in Christ’s spirit, Thresholds seeks to orient clergy to the diocese, strengthen collegial bonds, and offer continuing education to support leadership for thriving clergy, congregations, institutions, and diocese.
Emerging from the pandemic and assessing the realities of clergy life in the diocese, we’ve shifted our focus from full-time parochial priests. Utilizing Zoom and intentional scheduling, Thresholds in Leadership is now designed for new-in-call priests AND deacons including those who undertake their ordained roles as part of a suite of other vocations and roles. In the last year, we covered topics ranging from assuming leadership in meetings to preaching in the midst of complex political events. We welcomed, for individual sessions, the expertise of Bishop Cathleen Bascom, Canon Gar Demo, and Deacon Yvonne Amanor-Boadu. As we look to the new year, I ask your prayers for the twenty-one new-in-call clergy who have been invited to join this group: five deacons, sixteen priests; eleven parochial priests, three priests working in a diocesan organization, two priests who are establishing new roles as non-parochial supply; twelve clergy in a “uni-vocational” ministry and nine who are “bi-“ or “multi-vocational.”
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