EVENT - C OF E MSE/WP MINISTRY 18 MAY 2013

A NEW PATTERN OF PRIESTHOOD’: CELEBRATION AND CONSULTATION ON SELF-SUPPORTING MINISTRY AND  50th ANNIVERSARY EVENT FOR SOC & SEITE  18th May 2013, Southwark Cathedral
Organised and supported by the Church of England’s Ministry Division, the Diocese of Southwark and the South East Institute for Theological Education.....

This major national event is for everyone associated with SOC and SEITE over 50 years, including former students in all kinds of ministries, stipendiary as well as non-stipendiary, and for everyone involved in self-supporting ministry, including those who wish to encourage it and those who may be considering offering for it.

2013 will be the 50th anniversary of the first ordinations of self-supporting clergy in the Church of England working within the new provision for this made by changes to the Canons in 1959. These clergy were graduates of the Southwark Ordination Course (SOC), an initiative of Bishop Mervyn Stockwood, which subsequently became part of the South East Institute for Theological Education (SEITE).

‘A New Pattern of Priesthood’ is an opportunity to celebrate the new horizons for formation and vocation opened up by SOC and the institutions that built on its work, affirm the rich and varied contribution of self-supporting ministers over five decades and provide a national forum to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of self-supporting ministry in the Church today.

2013 will also be the 100th anniversary of the Church of England’s Ministry Division. Self-supporting ministry is emerging as a key area for engagement across the Church of England as it responds to the priority to ‘re-imagine ministry’ set for the current General Synod.

The event on Saturday 18th May will begin with a special thanksgiving Eucharist in the morning at 11am.  The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, will preside, and the Bishop of Sheffield and Chair of the Church of England’s Ministry Council, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, will preach.  In the afternoon, there will be: -

• a formal consultation with invited delegates, led by Ministry Division and engaging with current challenges for ministry policy at national and diocesan level
• a reception for all SOC and SEITE alumni, with opportunities to hear from current students, staff and members of the governing body
• an ecumenical forum on self-supporting ministry, hosted by Christians in Secular Ministry (CHRISM), under the theme “Hearing our Voices”, to explore and share experiences of work as ministry.
  

In the evening, participants may also like to join the annual Pentecost Celebration with European Worker Priests, which happens to be taking place in London this year and is being organised by CHRISM.

'A New Pattern of Priesthood'
The title of the event is taken from a phrase in Mervyn Stockwood’s address to the Diocesan Conference in 1959 introducing the SOC project, and explaining that: ‘When they have reached ordination level, these men may become curates in the ordinary way, or they may feel that they can be of greater use if they remain where they are and discover their way to a new pattern of priesthood.’ While there had been a number of important experiments in self-supporting ministry prior to 1963, including people inspired by the worker-priest movement in continental Roman Catholicism, the ordination of clergy to self-supporting title posts with full support and recognition from the institutional church was a very significant development for the Church of England. By 2011, close to half of all clergy ordained in the Church of England were ordained to self-supporting posts (240 out of 504). Many of them see their situation in paid work as a major focus for their Christian ministry alongside involvement in the life of a local parish, while it is increasingly common for clergy to move between stipendiary, sector ministry and self-supporting posts.
More details and booking form here.