SOM BEGINS AGAIN

"The purpose of the School of Ordained Ministry in the Diocese of Northwest Texas (SOM) is to provide a quality theological education for the formation of priests and deacons. It focuses this education on talented students, who for various reasons cannot attend a residential seminary." 

After a 2-year hiatus, SOM has begun again with a new group of 5 students who gathered the last weekend in August at the Hulsey Episcopal Center in Lubbock to begin/continue their theological education.

Even though SOM is beginning afresh, 2 of the students already have a year of study under their belts. Alan Kee from St. Andrew's, Amarillo had studied one year with a previous class of SOM before having to pull back for professional reasons. He is now engaged in finishing his remaining two years. Also, last year Joe Biles from Heavenly Rest, Abilene spent a year commuting to SOM's mother program, the Iona School for Ministry in the Diocese of Texas at Camp Allen, about halfway between College Station and Houston. Alan and Joe are the class of 2025. 

Brand new students are Jack Dupy from St. Matthew’s, Pampa, Monica Hart from St. Andrew’s, Amarillo and Bikole Mulanda from Heavenly Rest, Abilene. They comprise the class of 2026

The dioceses of Texas and Northwest Texas, along with 32 other dioceses are part of the Iona Collaborative, a program of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. Thus, more than a third of the dioceses in the Episcopal Church have a local clergy training program under the umbrella of Iona. Though each of the 34 diocesan schools is independent, we all use resources generated by the Seminary of the Southwest, including lectures by their faculty. In addition, the leaders of these schools meet periodically via Zoom and occasionally in-person to share best practices and locally generated resources with each other.  

My thumbnail sketch is that the Iona program provides the breadth of a seminary education, though because of limitations of part-time versus full-time students, it is not able to equal the depth. Nevertheless I am continually amazed at the way this program is able to deliver resources to enable people to have a quality theological education without attending seminary.

In our diocese, we gather Friday evenings through Sunday afternoons for 10 monthly weekend sessions from August through May each year for three academic years. On Fridays, we study either homiletics (preaching) or liturgics (worship). On Saturday mornings and afternoons, we have a rotating curriculum spending one year each in the main subject areas: holy scripture, church history, and theology & ethics. All of these classes are led by our two mentors, me and Fr. Jared Houze from St. Andrew's, Amarillo. 

On Saturday evenings, we have rotating guest faculty who deal with a wide variety of topics, many of them involved with practical aspects of ministry. On Sunday mornings the students make site visits together and worship with various congregations. Because of geographical limitations, the Lubbock Episcopal Churches are in heavy rotation. However, during the church history year, the students visit a wide array of other denominations as we move through studying the rise of various flavors and forms of Christianity. On Sunday afternoons the students meet again at the Hulsey Center with Dr. Dann Wigner to debrief the worship experience, and to spend time on various topics in spirituality.

In addition to academics and site visits, we participate in a regular variety of services during our time together, praying Morning, Noonday, & Evening Prayer, and Compline every weekend. The students take turns preaching at various services. And we share time together as a small Christian community.  

Since 2013 there have been 16 graduates of SOM who have faithfully and ably served this church in the Diocese of Northwest Texas and beyond. And if you are contemplating a possible call to ordained ministry but can't contemplate attending seminary, talk to your rector—SOM may be a good fit for you!