You may have noticed over the past year that there has been a resurgence in activity around theological education in the diocese and particularly at St John’s College. Back in 2016, the Synod accepted a report on the future of theological education in Rupert’s Land that made a number of sweeping recommendations on how ongoing theological education and formation for ministry would be undertaken in light of the many changing realities facing the Church today. Many of those recommendations have been implemented and others have become less relevant as time has gone on, but the overarching thrust of the report remains relevant – “to create a culture of theological education across the diocese.”
Theology sometimes gets a bad reputation as boring, overly abstract, or worse, an active barrier to just “being Christian.” I’m sure we can all think of examples where this has been only too true. But there is a theologian named Nicholas Healy who has pointed out that when we say “theology” we can actually mean one of three things. First, theology can simply be the normal, everyday activity of any Christian trying to make sense of their faith as they go about their lives. Second, theology can be the “official” theology of denominations or other institutions, like for instance the 39 Articles in our own Anglican tradition. Finally, theology can be a critical enterprise, usually undertaken by people called “theologians” that seeks to constructively mediate between revelation, “official theology,” and “ordinary theology.” The work of theology thus takes many shapes and is necessarily done by the whole people of God.
So, in the interest of creating a “culture of theological education” that seeks to include the whole Church, we’ve been working on something we’re calling the St John’s Theology Hub. St John’s College has long been the theological training institute for our diocese but has had limited theological programming since the close of the Faculty of Theology in 2011. But that is starting to change. This past year saw the return of the Wilmot Lecture with an exciting panel of local theologians on the topic of theologies of witness. The next Wilmot Lecture will be on October 7th and this time we are featuring Dr. Lisa Powell who will be giving a lecture entitled, “How can God be Disabled? A Trinitarian Response.” In preparation for Dr. Powell’s visit, we will be hosting an online book club on Friday afternoons. Beyond the Wilmot events we have hosted a number of workshops at the college and around the diocese on various pastoral concerns like Land Acknowledgments, suffering, and the practice of hospitality. If you missed the ones we’ve already done, don’t worry, there will be plenty more to come! We launched “Summit” a monthly hybrid event featuring discipleship discussions and special presentations from guest speakers. We’re really excited for our fall line-up so be sure to save the date and join us in person at St John’s or online via the Zoom link.
In addition to workshops and conferences, we’re also very excited to announce that more formal theology classes are returning to St John’s. This spring we offered a class on Ecotheology, and for the 2024-25 academic year will be offering classes on Indigenous and Christian Spirituality, Theologies of Place, Reading Christian Scripture, and a preaching class called “Proclamation and Method.” You can find out more about each of these classes and register here. These classes aren’t just for super-academic types. We are working with a new network called WECAN, the Western Education Collaborative Anglican Network, which is made up of dioceses and colleges from across Western Canada who are working to make theological education accessible to lay and ordained Christians at a very reasonable cost. Through our partnership in this network students can audit or take classes for credit toward a Licentiate in Theology (LTh) granted by Emmanuel St. Chad’s in Saskatoon.
As the ad-men say, “that’s not all!” for Rupert’s Land is also thrilled to be working with the Diocese of Brandon to host a one day conference on Discipleship at St John’s College on Saturday, September 28th featuring a visit from the Archbishop of York, the Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell. We’re very excited about his visit and you can register to attend for merely the cost of lunch here!
The St John’s Theology Hub, while based out of St John’s College is designed to flexibly meet the needs of an everchanging church. You can follow along with everything we’re up to on Instagram @rupertsland_theology or reach out to [email protected] to enquire about a workshop just for your parish.
