Initial Ministerial Education Phase 2
At the successful completion of your college or course-based Initial Ministerial Education – Phase 1 (IME1) – you will be ordained a Deacon and licensed to ‘serve your title’ over the course of three years in a parish. The exception to that is that those who have been designated as an Ordained Pioneer Minister will serve a five-year Curacy (more on that below). The primary focus of training shifts from education (learning theology) to training (developing ministry skills). You will be apprenticed to the Vicar or Rector of your title parish who becomes your Training Incumbent (TI). They will provide you with opportunities in the parish to learn the skills of being a parish priest with the priorities and programme you agree with them for your ongoing learning and formation set out in a Working and Learning Agreement that you write together.
In addition to the personalised mentorship mode of learning, there is a programme structured learning to complement your practice in the parish and deepen your knowledge of the challenges and opportunities of ordained ministry.
The buttons below link to the learning resources for each module in this programme. These courses are a required component of all Curates’ ongoing education, training and formation.
Year One: Diaconal Year
This is the structured learning that you will undertake in your first year of ministry following your ordination as a Deacon and before you are additionally ordained as a Priest (usually at the end of your first year) unless you are a Distinctive Deacon.
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IME2101 Leadership I |
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IME2102 Shared and Collaborative Ministry |
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IME2104 Leadership II |
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IME2105 Pioneering I: Foundations |
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IME2106 Preparing to Preside |
Year Two
This is the structured learning in the second year of your curacy.
Year Three
Here is the structured learning for the third year of curacy.
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IME2301 Leadership IV: Managing Conflict |
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IME2302 Looking Ahead |
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IME2303 Curates’ Retreat |
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IME2304 Signing Off |
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IME2305 Pioneering III: Enabling Mission |
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IME2306 Public and Civic Ministry |
Common Modules
These are the modules that are common to each year group.
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IME2402 Clarity of Vision: National, Diocesan and Local |
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IME2403 Chairing |
Pioneer Curates
As with all curacies, the primary purpose is the curate’s ongoing formation and ministerial development. At the same time, we anticipate that there will be benefits for the parish in the pioneering ‘legacy’ from the curacy. For this reason, pioneer curacies are for five years not three. The broad aims for five-year pioneer curacies are as follows:
1. Priestly Ministry
As Ordained Pioneer Ministers, OPMs need to be deployable in all kinds of contexts and so do need to learn the regular tasks of priestly ministry, including leading worship, preaching, pastoral visiting, leading discipleship and conducting the occasional offices of the Church (weddings, baptisms, and funerals). The first three years of the curacy will deliver the bulk of this learning.
2. Leading Pioneer Mission
At the same time, as Pioneer Ministers, OPMs need to continue to develop as leaders of ‘pioneering mission’. By this, we mean enabling the parish to connect with new people in new ways – beyond the regular activity of the church –which can become a new Christian community (a fresh expression of Church) in their own right.
3. Forming a Mission Community
We are not expecting OPM curates to personally establish a mature fresh expression of church in their curacy, however. The primary purpose of the pioneering aspect of their curacy is that they learn how to build the capacity for pioneering in the parish. They may well accompany a group of people partway along the fresh expressions journey, but primarily, they are learning through practice how to identify, gather and form the members of a pioneering mission community (MC) that continues pioneering after the curate’s departure.
Overall shape
Through the curacy, the balance shifts from a greater focus on learning priestly ministry in the first year to a primary emphasis on pioneer ministry by years four and five. That does not preclude ‘parish time’ also having a pioneer focus or intent. At the end of year two, a review determines whether to continue beyond year three, enabling those that prefer to exit after three years. The final year of five is focused on enabling the newly established mission community to transition to local leadership to ensure its sustainability.