Training for ordained ministry in the Church of England

Queen’s is recognised and approved by the House of Bishops to prepare women and men for ordained and authorised lay ministries within the Church of England. All its programmes are validated under the educational validation process for the churches as well as by the University of Birmingham. Queen’s has around 180 years history of training ordinands and is well placed to meet the challenges and opportunities of ministry in the 21st century.

If you are exploring ordained or authorised ministry you should be in conversation with your parish priest and Diocesan Director of Ordinands, but you are welcome to visit us to see what training here can offer you. We offer open days during the year but if these are not convenient a visit can be arranged at any time.

Queen’s can offer a variety of modes of training - full or part-time, residential or part-residential - but in whichever mode you draw on the resources and expertise of the whole Foundation, and you learn and worship with others doing different pathways. The presence of the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies, and the international mission students, staff and scholars who share its life within the Foundation, means that ordination training is mission focused and in direct conversation with the wider world church. The presence of the Research Centre creates extensive opportunities for those who wish to study at advanced levels, with skilled and experienced supervisors.

Most candidates train in one of the following modes:

• within a community of learning that draws mainly on day-time, ‘college style’ programmes. You can do this form of training full or part time; you can be resident or non-resident. Most will be preparing for stipendiary forms of ministry, but it is also possible for candidates over 50 to train in this way for permanent non-stipendiary ministry. Within this mode of training there is considerable variety in terms of the content and length of the training programme.
• within a community of learning that draws mainly on evening and weekend, ‘course style’ programmes. This form of training is always part-time where your existing employment or home and church continue to be a vital context for the exploration, testing and practice of ministry. This form of training is normally for three years, but for those with recognised prior experience, or for those over 50, shorter programmes are possible with the agreement of your Bishop.

"I would have described myself as having a charismatic spirituality with an evangelical theology when I came to Queen's. The idea of Evangelical Spirituality was actually a new one to me. This ...helped me to understand myself more than any other and helped me to reflect on my own Christian pilgrimage in a most powerful way." Keith, a recent Anglican ordinand

Queen’s is proud of its ecumenical character but proud too of its deep Anglican roots (Queen's is one of the oldest Church of England Theological Colleges in this country). Queen’s seeks to embody its Anglican identity by being a place that affirms and celebrates the breadth of the Church in its catholic and evangelical traditions, that welcomes the tradition of open enquiry, and “a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility that does not seek to close down unexpected questions too quickly” (Rowan Williams, The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today: A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion.)

If you want to be stretched by encountering Christians whose experience and beliefs are different from yours, if you want to deepen your understanding of Anglicanism by sharing with those who belong to the Church of England and the wider Anglican communion in ways that are new to you, if you want to seek new ways of being church that explore beyond the forms which we have received, then Queen’s is for you.