Presbyter/Priests -- Competencies

Common to all ministries

• Understands and accepts the authority of scripture within the Episcopal Church tradition.
• Understands, respects, and follows the published guidelines for our corporate life in the Episcopal Church.
• Models good communication skills.
• Demonstrates respect for boundaries and roles within the community.
• Depersonalizes conflict; receives feedback as an opportunity for learning and growth.

Resources
    And God Spoke: The Authority of the Bible for the Church Today
    (Christopher Bryan)
    Sexual Misconduct Awareness Training
    Workshop on communication skills (to be developed)
    BCP
    Canons
    Loving the Question (Marianne Micks)Worship

Exhibits a competent liturgical style.

• Demonstrates public speaking skills appropriate to text and context.
• Projects confidence and prayerfulness in presiding.
• Evaluates ceremonial options and makes choices appropriate to the liturgical context.
• Communicates an understanding of the sacraments.

Resources
    BCP
    Praying Shapes Believing. (Leonel Mitchell)
    Speaking of the Holy (Richard Ward)
    Workshops (Bruce and others)
    A Prayer Book for the 21st Century (Ruth A. Meyers)
    Prayer Book Rubrics Expanded (Byron Stuhlman)
    Let Us Give Thanks (Liturgy Canada)

Prepares appropriate and effective liturgies.

• Demonstrates knowledge of BCP.
• Demonstrates knowledge of other Christian liturgical resources.
• Plans and gracefully carries out liturgies with other worship leaders in the congregation and community.
• Plans and carries out liturgies in response to significant events.

Resources
    Prayer Book Rubrics Expanded. (Byron Stuhlman) www.textweek.com
    Wild Goose Worship Group
    Iona Community
    Gather Comprehensive
    BCP
    Lutheran Book of Worship
    Let Us Give Thanks (Liturgy Canada)
    Core curriculum

Prepares and delivers topical and pastoral homilies

• Understands and applies a model for interpreting text.
• Constructs homilies based on interpretive insights so that they can be appropriated by people in their context.
• Seeks and uses regular feedback to improve homilies.
• Demonstrates an awareness of contemporary issues.

Resources
    Your Way with God's Word (David Schlafer)
    Surviving the Sermon (David Schlafer)
    Preaching workshops
    Ten Strategies for Preaching in a Multi-Media Culture (Tom Troeger)

Spiritual discernment

• Understands and practices individual spiritual direction.
• Understands and applies at least one model for community spiritual discernment.

Resources
    Listening Hearts (Suzanne Farnham, etc.)
    Sacred Acts, Holy Change (Eric Law)
    Discerning God's Will Together (Morris & Olsen)
    Workshops

Prayer

• Demonstrates skill in leading civic prayer; e.g., baccalaureates, town meetings, sporting events, etc.
• Describes and demonstrates at least three prayer disciplines (Lectio Divina, Benedictine, centering, etc.).

Resources
    BCP
    Gleanings: Essays on Expansive Language with Prayers for Various
    Occasions (Ruth A. Meyers)
    LifeCycles (Prayer Experience)
    Praying Shapes Believing (Mitchell)
    Opening the Prayer Book (Jeffrey D. Lee, NCTS)
    The Practice of Prayer (Margaret Guenther, NCTS)

Reconciliation

• Helps people see and comprehend reconciling opportunities in baptismal ministry and daily life; shares in the reconciling work of Christ.
• Articulates a theology of sin, reconciliation, and forgiveness.
• Demonstrates the ability to hear confessions.

Resources
    Workshop (Ron Lytle)
    Praying Shapes Believing (Mitchell)
    Prayer Book Rubrics Expanded (Stuhlman)
    The Wounded Healer (Henri Nouwen)
    No Future Without Forgiveness (Desmond Tutu)
    Reconciliation: The Umbuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (Michael Battle)

Authority

• Understands and applies rubrics, diocesan, and local policies regarding liturgy.
• Understands and demonstrates a behavioral covenant (.e.g., Eric Law’s Respectful Communications Guidelines) that fosters good group dynamics.
• Understands and applies canons appropriately.
• Demonstrates a working knowledge of the historical basis of authority in the Episcopal Church, including how it impacts issues of contemporary society.
• Articulates three models of ethical decision-making.

Resources
    Inclusion: Making Room for Grace (Eric Law)
    Canons
    Prayer Book Rubrics Expanded (Stuhlman)
    BCP
    Living with History (Thompsett, NCTS)

Priestly Identity

• Understands and articulates the role of “priest” in community.

Resources
    Living on the Border of the Holy (William Countryman)
    The Wounded Healer (Nouwen)
    In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (Nouwen)
    "The Tangled Skein" (Wesley Frensdorff, Reshaping Ministry)

Who is the Local Priest?
The local priest, like any other, is a reminder that each Christian shares in the reconciling work of Christ. She is seen as a spiritual leader (though not the only one in a congregation) and presides over the Sunday eucharistic celebration, as well as other services of the church. She, along with other ordained leaders in the congregation, probably participates in the local ministerial association.

The local priest is also a volunteer. He typically has a full-time job and likely some community involvement. Ordained after several years of study in his home congregation, he was discerned for this role by the members. But he doesn't do everything. His congregation is engaged in developing baptismal ministry, and there are active preachers, pastoral care leaders, teachers, a worship planning group, maybe an administrator or catechist. The temptation -- sometimes on his part, sometimes on the part of others -- is to assume that he is in charge of the congregation.

Continuing education is a way of life. Each Advent the local priest, in consultation with a ministry developer, works out an education plan for the coming year. The area of study may come from the Competencies for Local Priests or from a different subject the priest wants to investigate.

Since General Convention passed Title III canonical reforms, there is no distinction between those prepared and ordained to serve locally as volunteers and folks on a professional path. However, we will still need and use the model of local priest, as it allows all congregations to experience full sacramental lives while living into baptismal ministry.

The Learner’s Portfolio
Evidence of proficiency in the competencies for local priests
Evidence is the way you show what you can do and what you have learned. It may be . . .

• paper based: written memos or reports on meetings, a report of something you did by someone who was there (ask to have the report signed and dated, with a note about who this person is - friend, warden, ministry developer, etc);
• witness evidence from your mentor or some other person who experienced you in action (visiting in the hospital, planning a liturgy);
• photograph or video can illustrate how you carried out a particular task or activity (preached a sermon, presided at a wedding);
• audio tape of a meeting or discussion could show how you contributed to the event;
• in any other form you can come up with, provided it can be easily understood by someone else and really does “show what you know.” Be creative!

Remember! Evidence for each competency must include something from the learner and something from the “witnesses.”
The process of collecting evidence can start as soon as you like, and your mentor will help you with advice and suggestions about what is needed. S/he will also help you discover areas where you still need to learn and develop, and offer ways of filling the gaps.
Remember! Don’t destroy anything that might be good evidence.

What is your evidence about?
It includes prior learning: what you have already learned.

• (e.g., documents, certificates, letters, self-appraisal, your own history)

It includes performance: what you are doing now.

• observation and reflection by yourself and others about what you are currently doing
  (leading worship, taking part in groups, teaching, learning);
• feedback from others;
• letters you have written, worship material devised, sermons;
• notes or recordings of teaching or learning sessions;
• essays and projects from formal courses - with your mentor’s comments;
• etc., etc., etc.

Remember! You can use a piece of evidence for more than one competency.