2025 Summer College Serves Dioceses Across the Province - from the Diocese of Virginia Clergy Communique
Photo credit: The Rev’d Katherine Dougherty
Church leaders may feel like successful ministry depends on magic or the charismatic priest. Not so! The College for Congregational Development offers tools and resources for helping lay leaders and clergy grow churches to be more effective, faithful, and joyful.
Participants can register in teams (preferred) or individually for either a week-long intensive program during the summer or a six-Saturday program during the fall. Both programs last two years and give participants the opportunity to bring a real-life challenge or goal to The College and turn it into a project that benefits their church.
Although it is hosted in the Diocese of Maryland, this summer four people from the Diocese of Virginia started The College and one graduated. Additionally, the Rev. Shirley Smith Graham finished her intern-year as a trainer for The College in Maryland, while helping to re-launch the Diocese of Rochester’s program. She will remain a trainer for Maryland’s College.
Trainers may be invited to participate in Colleges across the United States. Participants also may register in any College.
The relationship between Virginia and Maryland is an example of life-giving cooperation, said Smith Graham. “Just as each church has specific skills and charisms, so it is with dioceses. We do our best work when we practice ministry as an ecosystem and rely on each other in mutually interdependent ways. I’m grateful that The College in Maryland is so easily accessible to folks in Virginia.”
The College for Congregational Development is a comprehensive training program that seeks to nurture and develop lay and clergy leadership by drawing on congregational and organization development theory and practice. We focus on developing healthy, responsive leadership, facilitation skills, and teamwork through understanding of Anglican/Episcopal ethos, culture, spirituality, and ways of being the church today.
The goals of the College are:
- Healthy, faithful, sustainable churches living into their calling to be the Body of Christ in their own place and time and people.
- Congregations that are deeply grounded in their own Episcopal identity, in a way that fits with their context.
- Leaders who know the challenges and opportunities they face and are equipped to respond, both individually and together with their faith communities.
- A common language and culture of practice of congregational development throughout the Diocese, recognizing that this is possible for churches of all sizes, locations, and conditions.
- Connections among leaders within and between congregations that strengthen shared learning, encouragement, community, and inspiration.
The focus of the College is on congregational teams learning together in order to broaden congregational leadership. We believe teams are best able to implement positive, shared, and long-lasting change for the health of their community. Many of the exercises the College uses concentrate on your specific congregation’s experience, inviting you to go deep in both reflection and planning.
If you have questions or would like more information, please email The Rev. Canon Kristin Krantz at ccd@episcopalmaryland.org.