St. Joseph of Arimathea Seminary News
Upcoming Course Offerings – Spring 2021 and Fall 2021
For the remainder of the Fall 2020 semester, Bishop Hansen’s class in Church History, Canon Jones’ class in Spiritual Discernment, and Bishop Ashman’s third semester Greek class will be concluding. We appreciate everyone’s participation in these courses! Next semester, Spring 2021, the on-line course offerings from the Seminary will be:
Fourth Semester Greek taught by Bishop Ashman. Date and time TBA.
January 5th, 2021 – March 16th - Historical Theology Made Simple – a mixed class on the theology of the first eight centuries of the Church for Postulants, Clergy, and
Laity taught by Bishop Ashman. Please note, this class is designed as an audit course with no tuition and is open to laity and clergy, especially Postulants and Deacons, or priests who just want to review.
April 13th – June 15th – A Deacon’s Practicum Class for all current
Deacons and Postulants also taught by Bishop Ashman. Although this class will not be academically rigorous, it is required of Postulants or Deacons who are discerning ordination within the next eighteen months.Finally, an intensive Historical Theology class (two semesters in one) for credit or audit with tuition or scholarship. The class will begin on Tuesday, January 5th at 11:00 am PST until about 12:30 pm PST, and continue through June 30th, excluding Holy Week and Synod weeks.
Berkeley Summer Seminary Session – TBA
Fall Term, 2021 – The on-line class offerings will be:
Bishop Schultz will offer an expanded year-long (2 semesters) class on
the Book of Common Prayer.
Archbishop Upham will offer a course in Ecclesiology (Fall, 2021) and
Ecclesiastical Polity (Spring, 2022), meeting Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm EST,
beginning September 8th through December 15th. Spring 2022 days and time, TBA.
Bishop Ashman will offer Greek Five and Six.
Other Seminary News
We are deeply indebted to our Seminary Librarian, Mrs. Carol Karcher, who is in the process of cataloging and organizing the stacks of the library. She has worked tirelessly in establishing a computer database based on the Library of Congress organization system so volumes can be found easily and efficiently when needed. The Seminary library has needed this for a long time. Thank you, Carol!
Finally, under the chairmanship of Bishop Blair Schultz, the Archbishop, and the Council of Bishops have established a Provincial Board of Examining Chaplains, whose main function is to develop a rotating system of standardized ordination exams for our Provincial Postulants, both for the Diaconate and the Priesthood. This Board will in no way replace the Diocesan Boards of Examining Chaplains who will continue to be responsible for all Postulants in their respective Dioceses. In addition to Bishop Schultz, the Provincial Board of Examining Chaplains will be composed of Fr. Michael Mautner, Dr. Paul Russell, Dr. J. Albert Starr, and Canon Ben Jones.
We want to take a moment and thank everyone who has taken courses at St. Joseph’s since we established distance learning and when we began using the Zoom and You Tube platforms. We deeply appreciate your continued support of the Seminary program and want to reiterate that it is
not only for those who are discerning a life of service in the ordained ministry but also for interested Laity who want to know more about their Faith. In this way we are faithful to Archbishop Morse’s legacy and are securing faithful Laity and Clergy for our future. May God continue to bless our Province. Thank you.