'Our time together was renewing and helpful' 
 

The ministerial formation team at Regent's Park College took time away to reflect on the present and the future. They explain what happened and what emerged 

It’s not easy to get all five of the ministerial formation team at Regent's Park College together. Three of us juggle two jobs, part-time for the College, and part-time in other roles, and the two who are full-time bear other responsibilities within College. It was therefore a gift for the first time as a five (in three years) to be able to find time to be together for around 30 hours. 

We gave ourselves first to being with each other, to learning more about each other and to understand more of what we each bring to the team and to our students.

We were aided in this from some of our current students reflecting on what they receive from us. We believe we are a good team — and it was encouraging to hear that others think so too — bringing different gifts and experiences of theology, spirituality, pastoral care, and creativity that is an enriching mix. 

We were meeting at in a year when ministerial students starting in our Colleges has dropped significantly and we wanted to talk about how we might respond to this challenge, but thinking all the time about at what kind of ministers we hope our students will become.

We came up with three phrases — formed in Christ, shaped by scripture, rooted in prayer.

They are perhaps fairly simple sounding, but they capture our desire to see ministers who embody the gospel of Christ as disciples and as those with responsibility for worship, mission and pastoral care. Formation for Regent's students is closely tied to scripture and prayer.

We also discussed how our current formation programme and pathways might need to change to meet the needs of the churches at the moment.

One unique aspect of Regent’s is how it's a residential community of students: we felt we could offer younger people in our churches with a sense of call to ministry a place to live and study and prepare for a whole life of ministry.

Our time together was renewing and helpful to us as a team and to how we want to continue to offer ministerial formation, which we hope will be evident going forward. 

We are convinced that Regent's is a great place to sharpen your mind, widen your horizon, attend to your soul, all in a supportive community that will prepare people for ministry today and tomorrow.  
 

Beth Allison-Glenny, Anthony Clarke, Jane Day, Andy Goodliff and Tim Judson