A Leader for the Future
  • Our Vision of Theological Education

    • CDSP offers a broad array of degree and certificate programs, designed to provide the most comprehensive and flexible set of options possible for the education of all the baptized for ministry in church and world. The MDiv degree remains at the center of our academic program, but increasingly this degree is being reconceived to make it more effective for students (with both lay and ordained vocations) who will minister in non-congregational and non-traditional contexts, as well as strengthening the education and formation it offers to students with more traditional vocational goals. The multicultural context of the greater Bay Area enables us to offer opportunities for Field Education, internships, and brief immersion courses that deepen students' skills in reading contexts for ministry, and increase their sensitivity to the central role that culture plays in all ministry settings.

    Masters degree programs attract students seeking specific professional formation as well as students entering the world of academic research and teaching. CDSP-affiliated students in the GTU's PhD program enrich the life of the community through their academic service as teaching assistants and their participation in worship and student life. The Certificate in Anglican Studies affords students who have completed some formation for ministry in other settings the opportunity to come for a year of intense Anglican focus, while the Certificate of Theological Studies opens the door to the broadest possible exploration of theological education for students with wide-ranging interests.

    CDSP offers two very different Doctor of Ministry programs for ministry practitioners with several years of experience. The residential program is offered in collaboration with Pacific School of Religion, and is designed for those who are able to use sabbatical time for a semester in residence at CDSP, and who wish to take advantage of the breadth and depth of GTU course offerings in every theological field. Our new joint DMin in congregational development, offered with our partners at Seabury Western seminary, is a cohort-based program with summer and winter intensives in Evanston and Berkeley, complemented by online work mentored by a skilled ministry practitioner. Both programs attract students from around the world as well as across the U.S.A.

    Complete listing of academic programs.

    Emerging Models of Theological Education

      As well as a comprehensive set of more traditional academic offerings, CDSP is fully committed to innovation in theological education in a number of arenas.

      Local Formation
      As dioceses seek ways to provide formation for ministry for those for whom a residential seminary program is not a good fit – for reasons of age, distance, economics, family commitments, or contextual needs – CDSP is beginning a number of partnerships in which the seminary provides design expertise, oversight and assessment for individualized learning programs for students in rural areas. These involve online courses through CALL, short intensive courses at the seminary, regular reflection papers on the students' supervised local ministries, and practical assignments designed to facilitate shared learning within local ministry teams.

      TEEM
      Another exciting new development in the area of formation for ministry in rural and underserved areas is CDSP's planned collaboration with the ELCA's program of Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM). Students who are able to commit to three intensive residential sessions each year take courses from faculty in Berkeley and at Luther Seminary in St Paul, Minnesota, combined with study in their local context with supervising mentors. We look forward to the inclusion of students from the Episcopal Church benefitting from this program, under the auspices of CDSP.

      Area Ministries
      Building on CDSP's historic links with the Diocese of California, faculty members and students have recently been involved with the bishop and diocese in the exciting work of envisioning and developing new approaches to ministry in the urban context, drawing on Total Ministry principles, community organizing skills, and elements from the emergence movement and new monasticism. The seminary collaborates in leading classes for both our own students and ministry practitioners in the diocese on the theology and practice of Area Ministries; insights from these experiences are used to enrich key elements of our core courses on ministry development.

      Links with Bloy House and Northwest House of Theological Studies
      CDSP frequently welcomes students from Bloy House in Los Angeles, which offers a weekend program of theological study. These students complete their final year of study at CDSP and are awarded the MDiv degree. CDSP also participates (with other schools in the GTU) in the Northwest Consortium , which offers courses through a program based in Salem, Oregon. Students are admitted to both schools and, once again, attend CDSP's residential program for the final one or two years of their study for the MDiv degree.

      Online and Hybrid Learning – The Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership
      For more than a decade, CALL has been creating opportunities for continuing theological education, spiritual enrichment, ministry development, and congregational vitality through a variety of online and onsite programs. The Easton Hall Conference Center provides gracious and welcoming guest accommodations for students and groups visiting campus.

      CALL offers short residential courses in the summer and in January, centered around our annual Epiphany West conference, which attracts alumni and friends from around the country for a week of cutting-edge presentations and seminar focused on the new work of one of the faculty and a number of distinguished guest presenters. CALL's online and hybrid courses offer continuing education units on a wide range of topics, as well as a limited number of academic credit courses for MDiv students, together with courses particularly appropriate for the formation and continuing education of deacons through our partnership with the North American Association for the Diaconate.

      Ambitious innovations currently in the planning stages include a complete array of online course offerings leading to academic certificates and degrees. Some of these programs will be offered entirely online (in the case of certificates) and others will require just one year of residence on campus (in the case of the MDiv degree). Online elective courses for the joint DMin program in congregational development will also be offered. Faculty are committed to offering the excellent theological education for which CDSP is renowned to a more and more diverse constituency, through an increasingly diverse set of delivery systems.

      More information about CALL

    For Graduate Programs
    Last Reported IPEDS Data for Enrollment in each program level by Ethnicity and Gender. Use IPEDS definitions for students. IPEDS data reported as of (date) October, 2007

    Enrollment by Category Total FTE of Students Total Count of Students Non- Resident Alien Count Black, Non- Hispanic Count Am Indian/ Alaska Native Count Asian / Pacific Islander Count Hispanic/ Latino Count White/Non- Hispanic Count Ethnicity Unknown Count Total Male Count Total Female Count
    Masters 1.75 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1
    Research Doctorate NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
    Professional (Masters & Doctorate 67.5 79 3 2 2 2 4 66 0 32 47
    Certificate and Unclassified 12.75 23 1 1 0 1 0 20 0 9 14
    Total 82 104 4 3 2 3 4 88 0 47 69

    (Click chart to enlarge)
     
    ©2008 Church Divinity School of the Pacific Student/Faculty/Staff/Trustee Sign In