F8
The Bishop requires all those whom he licenses for ministry (clergy, Readers and accredited lay ministers) to commit themselves to a four-year programme of structured learning and development. It is expected that all those who are engaged in ministry during the first four years will be given enough freedom from ministry or parish duties to engage in the required training.
This will be especially difficult for those who have limited time to give to ministry due to employment or other commitments. The importance of this training however requires the investment of time in order to build on initial training and to establish a pattern of life-long learning and development.
The four-year CME 1-4 programme has five aims:
- to provide a structure to support and to review learning and development;
- to provide a wider context, outside the parish, for mutual support, encouragement, and reflection on the experience of ministry;
- to encourage the development of self-directed learning;
- to develop particular skills and competencies which are important in ministry;
- to offer support and guidance to training incumbents.
These aims are pursued in a programme that has four strands:
- Support for the training that is given in the parish context. This diocese starts from a clear acknowledgement that the primary place of continuing learning and development is the title parish, and that, with the exception of a very few cases where a person is ordained with the clear expectation that most of their ministry will, from the beginning, be in a place of secular employment, the relationship between the licensed assistant and his or her training incumbent is fundamental. The Ministry Development Office as well as the specific Officers who oversee different forms of licensed ministry all have their part to play in establishing and supporting that relationship, but in the end it is up to the licensed minister and the incumbent to take very seriously their joint commitment to learning and growth. Aspects of this relationship are facilitated through the working agreement, the local training agenda, and the training reviews; details regarding these are found in the respective training manuals (A Training and Learning Manual for Newly Admitted and Licensed Readers and A Training and Learning Manual for First Post Curates).
- Newly licensed persons are encouraged (ordained clergy, required) to form into year-groups. Each year-group meets between five and nine times a year under the direction of its convenor, who is an experienced minister appointed by the Ministry Development office. The group has considerable freedom to draw up its own programme.
- Each year, the Ministry Development Office publishes a programme of workshops. Those who hold the Bishop’s license for ministry on CME 1-4 are expected to attend at least three workshops each year. Workshops will tend to recur in a four-yearly cycle. Some workshops are time-tabled on weekdays, and some at weekends. Some may be more obviously directed at a particular constituency, e.g. those ministering in a place of secular employment, or those on the Church Commissioners’ payroll, but any workshop is in principle open to any who wish to come.
- All those who are licensed to ministry are entitled to various allowances, grants and bursaries. Information regarding specific entitlement can be obtained from the Ministry Development Office or in the relevant training manual.
