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School of Ministry

This year has got off to a hectic but very positive start. We have 13 residential ordinands training with us, plus two distance ordinands who are part of the learning community here in Dunedin for varying periods of time. The group this year has come together very well and there is a very positive and constructive tone, with plenty of interactive learning and activity. Partly this is a result of changes we have been making over the past few years in listening to feedback from both students and the wider church, as well as growth by staff in our own competence and experience in what we are doing. For example, my own trip to the USA last year resulted in some significant learning, perhaps most notably in how to use case-study methodology to construct a whole course, and this is being used to excellent effect in the Leadership for Congregations course.

All of the ordinands plus three of the staff travelled to Ohope to participate in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Te Aka Puaho becoming a synod. This was partly to complete our Maori module, which we did by travelling to their marae rather than having members of Te Aka Puaho travel to us, and partly to celebrate with them. The experience was tremendously worthwhile both in significant learning for us all and also in helping to develop a real sense of community for us. A shared lengthy marae experience does this in a way that perhaps nothing else can. It was also a great privilege to be able to celebrate with them.

We have also sponsored worthwhile training events for the wider church. We held a day-long seminar in March on men's spirituality with Andrew Pritchard, in conjunction with the Dunedin Presbytery. Then in April, a very successful day-long seminar with Dr. Marva Dawn: "That troubled trinity: sex, power and money in ministry”. Sixty people attended this from a wide spectrum of the church and travelled from as far afield as Invercargill and Geraldine. At the end of May, we are running a similar seminar, "Eyes wide open: looking for God in popular culture," with Dr. Bill Romanowski of Calvin College in the US . Both these latter events have been run in cooperation with Carey Baptist College . In addition, John Roxborogh and Kevin Ward have been running resourcing seminars for several Presbyteries and congregations.

There have also been movements with the staff. Principal Neville Emslie was away on study leave for the first three months of the year and Kevin Ward was acting principal during this period. Neville lived at Westminster College , one of the United Reformed Church’s training colleges. He spent his time in the libraries of the various Colleges and University working on his PhD thesis of mercy in Luke’s Gospel. He reports that, similar to the Presbyterian Church of Aoteraroa New Zealand , the URC is presenting very good candidates for ministry in the UK : people who are generally in their 40s having had significant leadership experience in the Church and in secular employment. It is hoped closer ties can be established between the School of Ministry and Westminster College . Next year, one of Westminster ’s staff will be on sabbatical in Dunedin .

Mary Huie-Jolly will be leaving in July to spend a year back in the United States, at Emory University in Atlanta , doing further training to qualify as a CPE supervisor. Elaine Wooliscroft after several decades here is due to retire this year. She is cutting down to 2 days a week from July, to help Juan Kinnear pick up at least some of the huge amount of knowledge she carries in her head during the transition period, before retiring fully at the end of the year.

During the School of Ministry report to the Synod of Otago and Southland, a question was asked about how many of the School of Ministry graduates were in parish ministry. This caused us to do a bit of research and the results were very interesting and encouraging. In the eight years since we began in 1997, there have been 59 graduates. Of these, 54 were placed into Presbyterian parishes, one went into ministry in another denomination, and only four have not gone into ministry. Today of that 59, 49 are in ministry in Presbyterian work, three are in other denominations or sister churches overseas, one is doing postgraduate study (using the postgraduate scholarship) and six are not currently in ministry, although half of these are intending to. I have been significantly involved in two of the other major ministry training providers in New Zealand, and I think this record would stand up to any comparison with other such bodies, either in New Zealand or overseas. It is good for us to have questions asked about what we are doing, both by our own students and the wider church, as it forces us to look hard at what we are doing, and how we are doing it, something we should always be willing to do. The result in this case has been very encouraging both for us, and I hope for the wider church.

Kevin Ward, dean of studies and sometime acting principal