Resources for Continuing Education
Within the Diocese
The Academy for Vocational Leadership is a three-year formation program for deacons and total ministry support team members in the Diocese of Michigan. The Saturday Series is open to the public and is the core academic part of the academy. Year-long classes are offered in the Bible, Church History, and Theology.
The Whitaker Institute offers many courses and workshops that are designed to enrich and support the ministry of all the baptized. Regular courses include:
- Safe Church Training
- Worship Leader Licensure
- Preaching Licensure
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- Here is a list of preaching continuing education resources!
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- Vestry Days
- The Diocesan Ministry Fair
- Epiphanies Speaker Series
- Education for Ministry – groups online
- Eating Together Faithfully: A Framework for Conversation is a Diocesan-wide, experiential, community-based resource for use in congregations and communities, based on this ecumenical program. Watch video here. Diocesan coordinator: Ms Felicity Thompson.
- Embracing Evangelism: Want to learn how to share your story of love? Check out this short video about the series! Embracing Evangelism: A six-part digital course exploring our call to seek, name, and celebrate Jesus’ loving presence in the stories of all people – and then invite everyone to more. Facilitated by Bruce Cann, Judith Schellhammer, Joyce Holden, Tamika Hamilton, and Cam Walker. While tuition is free, donations are welcome! Earn 4 Continuing Ed Units for the series. Click here to register!
Programs Offered by Episcopal Seminaries
- Virginia Theological Seminary supports the Diocese of Michigan Baptized for Life congregations (Christ Episcopal Church, Dearborn; St. Barnabas, Chelsea; Trinity Episcopal Church, Belleville.)
- Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) offers a Certificate in Anglican Studies is offered with two options: Residential and Low Residence. The Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership at CDSP offers regular online courses and has developed two series, making it possible for students to focus their studies in a programmatic way. Each series will enable students to receive an Online Continuing Education Certificate.
- Bexley Seabury offers the Diploma in Anglican Studies in two formats as well: Hybrid-intensive learning and Weekly Classroom setting. Nearly every course at Bexley Seabury can be taken for continuing education or for the love of learning. Bexley Seabury Leadership Institute at the Kellogg School is offered each June at Northwestern University.
- Sewanee School of Theology at University of the South offers Education for Ministry Online and groups are starting year-round.
- Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest offers through the Iona Center, a local offering of formation videos online for congregations to stream. Whitaker provides these formation videos free to all congregations. Simply sign up here and use “michigan” to have access to the videos. Reach out to us if you would like more information!
Online Resources
- The Whitaker Institute Online School offers short videos with reflection questions, most of which are single sessions for 45-minutes to an hour.
- Congregational formation videos from the Iona Center at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest available free to all congregations. Simply sign up here and use “Michigan” to have access to the videos. Reach out to us if you would like more information!
- The Center for Biblical Studies offers programs to help you engage the Bible like the Bible Challenge, a way to read the Bible in a year.
- Spiritual Directors List July 15, 2020, curated by The Whitaker Institute, includes spiritual directors in the region who have explicitly said they will serve participants in any Whitaker programs. If you are a Spiritual Director and would like to be added to this list, complete this form and we will be in touch!
- Spiritual Direction Guidance document offers a guide for finding and using Spiritual Directors.
- Check out this link to Spiritual Directors International website for guidance.
Anti-Racism and Diversity Workshops
Resources for Anti-Racism and Education from around the Diocese can be found here.
Whitaker Institute Online Classes
The Whitaker Institute Online School offers free, short video-based classes that you can take on your own time. These courses are free to users and congregations.
Simply register here for access to the online school where you will set up your own profile and access. Access is free but you must use the account at least every two months. Most of the courses are single sessions for 45-minutes to an hour. You can pause at any time and come back. You can even re-take lessons. Each course features 3-6 video lectures that are from 5-7 minutes in length. Also included are downloadable Mp3s of each lecture plus Discussion Questions and a one-page synopsis of the course called The Takeaway.
RACIAL JUSTICE COURSES
- Whiteness and Racial Justice By Kelly Brown Douglas
- Theology and Racial Justice By J. Kameron Carter
- Reparation and Racial Justice By Jennifer Harvey
- Racism and Racial Justice By Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
- Spirituality and Racial Justice By Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
The Diocese of Michigan’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force supports a Facebook page here. For more information contact the Whitaker Institute.
White Fragility Diocesan Book Study will include discussions of this book. Check out the author’s website here.
Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing (Diocese of Atlanta) http://www.centerforracialhealing.org/ has book studies, curriculum, youth programs, videos, etc.
VISIONS exists to make its clients stronger and more effective. Workshops, videos, blogs, and many resources! Visions, Inc.
Crossroads Anti-racism Organizing & Training. Racism dehumanizes us all — Dismantling racism heals us all. Recognizing that racism goes beyond personal prejudice, Crossroads offers a distinctive Power Analysis of how racism functions in institutions and offers tools to create antiracist transformation. Crossroads Antiracism Organizing & Training
Sacred Ground is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity. The 10-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.
White Privilege: Let’s Talk—A Resource for Transformational Dialogue is an adult curriculum from the United Church of Christ that’s designed to invite church members to engage in safe, meaningful, substantive, and bold conversations on race.
Doing Our Own Work: An Anti-Racism Seminar for White People. At this time in our nation, we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of white supremacy and state-sanctioned violence. It is imperative that white people do the deep work required to claim and embody an anti-racist identity, understand the privilege they carry, and interrupt racism where they live, work, study, and volunteer. Doing Our Own Work is an intensive seminar for white people who seek to deepen their commitment to confronting white privilege and challenging racism in all its forms. Offering more than 40 hours of “class time,” Doing Our Own Work equips participants with the analysis, skills, and tools needed to be more effective anti-racist allies.
Continuing Education Guidelines and Reports
Continuing Education Guidelines for Clergy
Continuing Education Guidelines for Laity
Continuing Education Resources for Preaching
Priests, deacons and commissioned team members should send their annual reports each year by March 1 for the prior year to the Director of the Whitaker Institute. Other lay persons should submit their reports to their Rector, Vicar or Priest-in-Charge.