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Criteria for Selection Ordained Ministry Church of England

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Criteria for Selection Ordained Ministry Church of England Ministry Division Criteria for Selection for the Ordained Ministry in the Church of England Ministry Division Church House Great Smith Street London SW1P 3AZ Tel: 020 7898 1412 Fax: 020 7898 1421 Published 2014 by the Ministry Division of the Archbishops’ Council Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2014 Contents Introduction i The Vocation Criterion................................................................................... i Gathering Evidence....................................................................................... i Assessing Potential and Risk ........................................................................ i Developmental and Non-Developmental Issues........................................... ii Focuses of Ministry ..................................................................................... iii Diversity of Candidates................................................................................ iv Criteria for Selection for Ordained Ministry in the Church of England 1 Criterion A: Vocation ....................................................................................1 Criterion B: Ministry within the Church of England .......................................3 Criterion C: Spirituality..................................................................................5 Criterion D: Personality and Character.........................................................6 Criterion E: Relationships.............................................................................8 Criterion F: Leadership and Collaboration..................................................10 Criterion G: Faith ........................................................................................12 Criterion H: Mission and Evangelism..........................................................13 Criterion I: Quality of Mind..........................................................................15 Introduction Introduction The following Criteria, which are approved for use by the House of Bishops, are primarily intended for the guidance of Bishops’ Advisers in the assessment and selection of candidates for ordained ministry in the Church of England. However, they are also useful for those engaged in vocational discernment within dioceses – DDOs, Vocations Advisers and Examining Chaplains. The Criteria set out, under nine headings, the areas of assessment in which Bishops’ Advisers need to be satisfied if they are to recommend a candidate for training. The Vocation Criterion The Criteria are divided into two sections. Criterion A (Vocation) stands alone in Section 1, while all the other Criteria are listed in Section 2. This is to differentiate Criterion A (Vocation) from the other Criteria as the key Criterion which candidates must fulfil if they are to be recommended for training. If candidates do not have a discernible sense of vocation, they cannot be recommended for training no matter how gifted and experienced they may be in relation to the other Criteria. Gathering Evidence The task of the Bishops’ Advisers is to gather evidence for either how candidates fulfil the Criteria or how they do not fulfil the Criteria. Each Criterion is made up of core elements which in turn are amplified and teased out by bullet points. Bishops’ Advisers need to find evidence within the candidate’s paperwork (the Registration Form, Written Reflection, Sponsoring Papers, References) that the core elements have been covered. If there is clear evidence that a core element has been fulfilled, to their satisfaction, the Bishops’ Advisers should focus in interview on another of the core elements where the evidence is less clear cut. If the evidence is contradictory, patchy or absent and needs further investigation then that should be undertaken in interview. Evidence for fulfilling or not fulfilling the Criteria is also gained from the various exercises at the Bishops’ Advisory Panel (the Presentation, Group Discussion, Personal Inventory and Pastoral Exercise) as well as how the candidate presents at interview and in social engagement during the Panel. Assessing Potential and Risk The main purpose of the Criteria is to provide a framework for helping the Bishops’ Advisers to assess a candidate’s potential for ordained ministry. Assessing potential can seem more straightforward in some candidates than others. For instance, candidates who are over 30 often come to the selection i Introduction process with considerable life experience and can readily provide evidence as to how they might fulfil the Criteria. If that evidence is not present, the Bishops’ Advisers can legitimately ask ‘Why not?’ However, the questions with regard to older candidates are often • Are their skills and experience readily transferrable to ordained ministry? • Are they flexible enough and sufficiently open to formation and development to be able to grow into the role of ordained ministry? In addressing these questions, the Bishops’ Advisers should find evidence for assessing a candidate’s potential. Assessing potential in younger candidates requires considerable care. Candidates under 30 may have little experience in some of the Criteria. For instance under Criterion F (Leadership and Collaboration), they may have had little experience of exercising leadership. The evidence may still be at an early, embryonic stage and Bishops’ Advisers will have to assess whether there are sufficient signs to suggest that a candidate has the capacity to grow and develop. However, having voiced this caveat, it has to be said that more often than not younger candidates show themselves to be extraordinarily resourceful and often seem, in a short period of time, to have gained and developed helpful, transferrable life skills. Younger candidates often seem to be particularly open to the process of formation which theological training brings. While Bishops’ Advisers need to assess candidates’ potential and their capacity to grow and develop into effective ordained ministers, they also need to assess risk. In every candidate there will be an element of risk – an area of weakness or underdevelopment which could undermine a candidate’s effectiveness. Bishops’ Advisers will need to identify the risk, to judge how serious it is and to decide whether the candidate’s potential outweighs the risk. If the risk in recommending a candidate for training outweighs the potential, the Bishops’ Advisers need (with the relevant evidence against the Criteria) not to recommend that candidate for training. Developmental and Non-Developmental Issues All candidates will have their strengths and their relative weaknesses: all are works in progress. The issue for Bishops’ Advisers is whether or not there is scope in the areas of weakness (realistically) for development. If an area of weakness is developmental, it normally means that a candidate given time and appropriate guidance and support could successfully address the weakness, either before entering training or during training. For instance, a candidate’s weakness may be that he or she doesn’t have an understanding of the nature of the different traditions and strands that make up the Church of England and so there is a significant weakness under Criterion B (Ministry in the Church of England). In such a situation this deficiency could be addressed through some guided reading and through experience on a series of parish placements. Thus the weakness should not be considered as too ii Introduction serious and should be seen as developmental – something which can addressed relatively easily and in a short space of time. However, sometimes the weakness can be non-developmental. This means that it would be difficult for a candidate readily and quickly to address the issue and undergo the necessary change. This could be the case, for instance, if there was a weakness under Criterion D (Personality and Character). While people can change difficult aspects of their personality and character (or learn to tone them down) this is a process which is not easy. It could involve a lengthy period of time and recourse to professional therapeutic help. Thus if the candidate’s weaknesses are judged to be non- developmental, the Bishops’ Advisers need (with the relevant evidence under the Criteria) not to recommend that candidate for training. Focuses of Ministry At a Bishops’ Advisory Panel, there are two discernment processes at work: The first is vocational discernment – does the candidate possess the potential to exercise ordained ministry in the Church of England? The second is deployment discernment – does the candidate, at the point of selection, possess the potential to exercise the focus of ministry for which they have been sponsored? For the vocational discernment, a candidate needs to fulfil all the Criteria so as to be recommended for training. For the deployment discernment, a candidate needs to fulfil the additional core elements of the Criteria which relate to their particular focus of ministry. For a candidate with the potential to exercise ministry with incumbent responsibilities, there are additional core elements under the following Criteria: • Criterion F (Leadership and Collaboration) • Criterion H (Mission and Evangelism) • Criterion I (Quality of Mind) For candidates for assistant minister and ordained local minister, there are no additional core elements and they are expected to fulfil all of the Criteria. However, for discerning ordained local minister candidates, Bishops’ Advisers need to pay particular attention to the local nature of
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