TWELVE grants worth more than £1.3 million have been awarded towards funding innovation in theological education, with the aim of widening the pool of people training for ministry in the Church of England.
The awards, Resourcing Ministerial Formation innovation grants, are made by the Ministry Finance Panel under delegated authority from the Archbishops’ Council. The funding comes from surplus funds for ministry training accrued over recent years and Vote 1 funding (from the Church Commissioners) set aside for innovation in lay-ministry training.
The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, has been granted £118,756 for research and development of good practice in the formation of neurodivergent ministers, in a project to be run jointly with St Mellitus College. The work will be led by the Anglican admissions tutor at the Foundation, the Revd Dr Allison Fenton, and the director of Innovation at St Mellitus, the Revd Ed Olsworth-Peter. The research findings will be published.
Mr Olsworth-Peter was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia in his early twenties. There had been “limited understanding” of the impact when he was an ordinand, he said. “I would have valued support in the challenges this can bring in ministry, as well as the recognition of the gift that this can be to the Church.
“Over the last two years at St Mellitus, we have been exploring what the formational support of neurodivergent leaders in training might look like, and how this needs a different approach.” He said that he welcomed the chance to “take this work deeper”.
Other TEIs to receive grants include Trinity College, Bristol, which has been awarded £230,000 to set up programmes to enable a younger and more diverse group of people to be formed for ministry.
The Tutor in Missiology and Lead Tutor for Academic Inclusion at Trinity College, the Revd Dr Howard Worsley, said: “We want students to be aware that they do not need to leave their backgrounds behind — in fact, the opposite: their experiences and the rich cultural diversity that they bring to their studies, and eventually their work in ministry, is essential to life of the Church.”
Ripon College, Cuddesdon, has been awarded £277,723 to establish a centre of excellence in the training and formation of children’s, youth, and families’ workers.
The diocese of Ely and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, have been awarded £45,208 to train between 15 and 20 lay chaplains in parishes in Cambridge to work with homeless people.
Other beneficiaries include Emmanuel College, in the north-west of England, granted £258,204 to support vocations in children and youth ministry, and the training of people from working-class backgrounds; the Eastern Region Ministry Course, granted £14,880 for an online study skills course to help people prepare for Reader and Licensed Lay Minister training; and the diocese of Guildford, granted £148,973 to fund a second year of its Foundations in Ministry programme.
Also, the diocese of Sheffield is granted £48,091 to train a more diverse group of “spiritual accompaniers” to support ordained and lay leaders; the diocese of Bristol receives £40,700 to develop lay training materials aimed at young people and people who are not from middle-class backgrounds; the Church Mission Society receives £50,000 to fund a part-time lecturer and student bursaries for a new MA focusing on Asian Christianity; and St Augustine’s College of Theology, London, receives £50,000 to develop a new MA in Discipleship for a Planet in Crisis.