Conferences and Meetings!

Conferences and Meetings!

From Principal Maylanne Maybee:

Conferences and Meetings!! June is the month of conferences, meetings, and gatherings. And I’ve been going to my fair share of them…

Two weekends ago I had breakfast with DUCC members and made a presentation about CCS at the Manitoba Northwestern Ontario Conference Annual Meeting in Winnipeg – using Scott Douglas’ video on our website at http://www.ccsonline.ca/About/aboutCCS.html . It was far more eloquent than I could ever be!

Bishop Lydia Mamakwe

Last week I went to Brandon to attend the Provincial Synod of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land – an area of the Anglican Church of Canada that embraces ten dioceses in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario. As in all these events, there were good moments and bad ones. A very good moment was the presentation by Bishop Lydia Mamakwe and the people of the northern area of Keewatin, leading to a decision to authorize them to form the first autonomous Indigenous diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada. It was truly a movement of the Spirit!
On Monday and Tuesday of this week the Heads of Anglican Colleges gathered, on day one at St. John’s College, Winnipeg and on day two at CCS. We deliberated about trends in Theological Education, including but not limited to

• A pattern of declining enrollment, and increasing numbers of students unable to move around (married and in full time employment);
• What “core competencies” or behaviours, attitudes and skills, are expected of candidates for presbyteral (priestly) ordination;
• New and emerging models of preparation for ministry (i.e. non M. Div.)
• What we as a network of theological schools can contribute to Aboriginal Theological Education
• Implications of reduced return on investments and ways we can collaborate and share efficiencies
• What we are doing in on-line and distance education.

It was encouraging to realize that CCS is relatively well equipped to meet these emerging trends. Our program is well designed for students who need or want to stay in their home communities. Our Guidelines for Learning are a fine example of well articulated “core competencies” for ministry. We offer a credible alternative to the M. Div. Our program is well suited to the Aboriginal model of learning-in-community (though much needs to be done to adapt its culture and content). We are in a good position to collaborate with others, and have much to share – and learn– about the interaction of community-based education with on-line and distance learning.

I am not the only one who has been on the road. Ann Naylor went to the Saskatchewan Conference Annual Meeting, Ted Dodd to the BC Conference Annual Meeting, Helen Reed and Carolynne Bouey Shank represented us at the Alberta Conference Annual meeting and so on. These gatherings are a great way to make CCS known, to learn from others, and to become aware of our strengths . Thanks to all of you who have contributed in one way or another!