Individual Formation
If you feel that God is calling you to ordained ministry, you will want to use this path to ordination. God’s call is often subtle. You may feel an urging, longing or nudging in the direction of ordained ministry. The example of a bishop, priest or deacon may inspire you to consider such a ministry. Perhaps a passage of Scripture read at home or at church starts you thinking. Sometimes someone says that you would make a good deacon or priest or asks you to consider such a ministry. You may have even considered ordination seriously some years ago and something prevented you from exploring it then, but now the time seems right and the promptings seem more urgent.
Every baptized person has a call to ministry. It is included in our baptismal promises. Some are called to the ordained ministry of a deacon or priest. In the exploration of that call, the Church tries to discern what God is doing in the life of the person who seeks ordination. Is it a call to a specialized lay ministry (working with the sick and shut-in in a special pastoral care program, helping build houses for the poor, helping in a food pantry, and many other programs)? The list of opportunities is endless. Or is the person called to be a deacon? Deacons make us aware of the needs of the community and bring that concern to the worshiping community and help us to respond to those needs (Book of Common Prayer, p. 543). Or is the person called to be a priest? Priests gather the people of God so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be proclaimed, to declare God’s forgiveness to the penitent, to bless, to baptize and to call them into the deep mystery of God’s presence in the Eucharist (Book of Common Prayer, p. 531). They also share in the leadership of the local church and the diocese.
The first step when you experience such a call is to make an appointment with your priest. He or she will listen to your experience of God and see if he or she hears the same calling. Your priest may recommend a parish discernment committee to further explore your sense of call. This is a small group of people who will meet with you on a regular basis over the course of several months. They too will be listening to God and to you to see if they experience the same call as you do. If not, they will be exploring with you their sense of God’s call to you.
If the priest, the discernment committee and you all hear the same call, then the priest brings that sense of call to the vestry (a group of six to 12 people who are responsible along with the priest for the business and spiritual affairs of your church). They may choose to interview you or they may simply take the recommendation of the priest and discernment committee. If the vestry approves your desire to seek ordination, that is called “nomination for the diaconate or the priesthood.”
The next step is to begin filling out the forms that you will find in the Nomination section of the Ordination Process area of this web site. Be sure you are selecting the right column. You will be looking under the Individual Formation column and choosing either the Deacon or Priest column.
The journey through the ordination process can sometimes seem long and, at times, frustrating. You are not alone. You have people to support you: your priest, discernment committee, members of the Commission on Ministry and your bishop. Everyone is trying to hear to what ministry God is calling you. It is important to remember that discernment continues when you officially enter the diocesan ordination process. It continues as you meet with the Commission on Ministry and as you write the bishop four times a year during the Ember days. There could be a point at which the Commission on Ministry and the bishop may not hear the same call as you have heard. Hopefully, that awareness is reached with your agreement, but sometimes it is not.
In preparing for ordination, you will need education in various subjects related to ministry and theology. Classes for deacons are offered through the Nebraska School for Baptismal Formation and Ministry. The usual time frame of two classes per semester will take about three years to complete. Your expenses will include tuition, books, mileage and depending on distance, overnight accommodations. The standard educational path for those seeking priesthood is the Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.) from one of our Episcopal seminaries. It takes 90 hours to earn that degree. It is normally done in three years. The bishop must be consulted first and be in agreement with your choice. Other educational arrangements can be made in consultation with the bishop. There are some on-line courses that can be taken as well. If you are seeking the priesthood and do not have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, you will need that first. There is no guarantee that you will be accepted into the ordination process if you already have the theological education needed, but have not been through a discernment process.
Another required experience for those seeking ordination to the priesthood is Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). These programs are usually hospital based and are available around the country. There are two programs in Omaha (
Nebraska Medical Center and
Alegent). Most seminarians do a unit of CPE during the summer. The program lasts 11 weeks and is full time. Part of the day is spent in education or personal reflection in a group setting and part is spent visiting patients. It is focused to help you provide quality pastoral care.
It is an exciting and perhaps even an overwhelming time in your life as you prepare for the ministry to which God has called you. May he richly bless your journey and provide those persons who will both help and sustain you.