2024-2025 Learning Circles
Feeling a call toward Diaconal Ministry? Looking for some education to help you “up your game” as a minister or lay person? Hoping for some diaconal formation to supplement and deepen your Designated Lay Ministry training? Interested in the way that faith and action and justice and compassion intersect in our world?
These are the theme learning circles we’re offering at the Centre for Christian Studies in 2024-2025 school to whet your appetite. All of these circles can be taken as part of a Diploma in Diaconal Ministries program, or a Certificate program (in Social Justice, Education and Worship, or Spiritual Care), or as stand-alone Continuing Studies courses. Now is a good time to apply. (For Continuing Studies students, you can register up to a month before the circle starts, but it’s good to apply early.)
If you have questions about CCS’s programs or any of these learning circles, email Program Coordinator Scott Douglas at info@ccsonline.ca .
June 17-28, 2024 is Learning on Purpose, our 2-week master class on learning in community. This is a great introduction to the Centre for Christian Studies and to the diaconal themes of social justice, spiritual care, and education. This year it will be near Montreal, QC. Next June it will be back in Winnipeg (June 16-27, 2025)
August 12-23, 2024 will be a special United Church Admissions Orientation circle, specially designed for clergy coming into the United Church from other denominations. We are pleased to be working with the United Church of Canada to support ministers in the admissions process.
October 16-22, 2024 will be Eco-Justice. Climate change and environmental issues are existential and theological. This week-long intensive invites participants to find their proper place in creation and to take action on behalf of the community of all living things.
October 24-30, 2024 is Culture and Identity. This week-long online intensive will explore what it means to be something, and how your something can enter into enlivening conversation with someone else’s something. It will be an exciting opportunity for intercultural learning.
Jan 7 to Feb 13, 2025 will be Ministry as Community-building. Healthy community can be both the goal and the path to social justice. This six-week, two sessions a week, online learning circle will explore the challenges and the joys of community and the role of the church in creating and maintaining healthy and just communities.
March 26-April 1, 2025 is Worship. This week-long intensive is an exploration of worship ministry, sacraments, and preaching. A great learning opportunity for anyone who finds themselves leading worship.
April 3-9, 2025 is Grief and Loss. How can you help people navigate the aching pain that comes with loss? This week-long intensive will explore various kinds of loss, with particular focus on support to the dying and those close to them.
May 2025 is Ministry as Listening. (Online, dates and duration to be determined.) The power of deep, empathetic listening can be transformative. This online learning circle explores some of the fundamental skills of spiritual care.
As well as these theme learning circles, CCS has Integration circles for Diaconal students in their final year, Field placements where students practice their skills in a ministry or community context, and Praxis where students engage with Diaconal mentors and develop the ongoing skills of action-reflection and learning in community.
Thanks to generous donors, CCS has some bursary funding available for students enrolled in the Diaconal Ministries program. The bursary application deadline is May 31, 2024.
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