Master of Divinity (MDiv)

CDSP’s MDiv program offers rigorous academic and spiritual formation for people who will, in a time of religious and cultural pluralism, lead the church in participating in God’s mission, forming Christian disciples, and proclaiming the Gospel. CDSP has transition to a quarter system with online and onsite learning included in each term. This change is primarily intended to help hybrid students’ workloads and focus. Students’ Experiential Learning year runs from Q2 of Year 3 through Q1 of Year 4 for an extensive, customized experiential program, which will include contextual education as well as CPE if required.

CDSP’s curriculum is designed with specific student outcomes in mind, and includes identifying knowledge, skills, and sensibilities that today’s Episcopal priests need in order for them, and their communities, to thrive.

• Facility in Foundational Disciplines: Students will have a facility with scripture, doctrine, liturgy, moral theology, historical theology, and practical theology. They will critically probe the resources of the Christian tradition to deepen their love of God, and to inspire their communities to do likewise.
• Contextual Understanding: Our students need a clear-eyed understanding of the realities facing their communities, the Episcopal Church, and Christianity more broadly. This program will prepare them to respond to those realities in a creative, Spirit-filled way, including by engaging difference in their communities without erasing it.
• Wise, Faithful Leadership: Priests must know themselves as people on a journey into a deeper experience of Christ, giving thanks for the joys of that journey and developing resilience amid its common pitfalls. Our students will analyze and navigate complex social systems and embody healthy pastoral and ministerial leadership.
• Creative Community Formation: Tomorrow’s churches and faith-based organizations need support cultivating flexibility, developing a sense of communal responsibility for leadership and care, and forming partnerships that benefit, mobilize, and inspire the wider community. Our graduates will have a passion for reimagining what is possible for the mission of the Church, with God’s help.

Candidates accepted to the program receive full scholarships and no fees charged during the course of the program. A primary goal of CDSP is to have our graduates have limited to no debt incurred by their attending CDSP.

Successful graduates of our MDiv program can:

• Articulate a coherent theological understanding of God’s mission, grounded in Scripture and in Christian heritage, particularly in its Anglican distinctiveness as well as its ecumenical comprehensiveness.
• Demonstrate skill in contextual analysis that informs and deepens the church’s commitment to the common good in particular ministry settings.
• Gather and form Christian community, and engage Christian disciples in joining God’s mission of reconciliation, justice, and mercy.
• Articulate and embody the good news of God in Jesus Christ in coherent and compelling ways, orally, in writing, and through action, communicating the transforming power of the Gospel both within the church and in our pluralistic world.

At CDSP, students prepare for ordained ministry with a core program of study that addresses the needs and concerns of the world and the church from Episcopal Church perspectives. Students take most or all of the courses covering the six canonically required areas of study for ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church at CDSP. They also take course at CDSP focusing on the core ministry leadership skills of contextual awareness, critical reflection, and public conversation.

Annual Evaluations

All MDiv students receive three general evaluations during their program of study. The purpose of evaluations is to assist the individual student in personal and theological growth in Christian formation. One’s own maturing relationship with God through Jesus Christ is of utmost importance to the individual and to the larger Christian community which MDiv students are preparing to serve. Because growth is continual and often difficult to describe, particular areas of a student’s seminary life are brought under careful review.

Academic skills are a major concern. That competence is partially measured by separate course evaluations provided by instructors. A knowledge of basic content and method in theological disciplines is highly important. Also important is the student’s ability to integrate different facets and areas of learning in constructive analyses of contemporary religious, social and political problems and to transmit these insights to other people.

Relational skills are another concern. Leadership, counseling, preaching, and teaching are measured by appropriate course evaluations, and also through reports from Contextual Education assignments. It is important to assess how a person’s theological understanding and commitment is manifested in all areas of the student’s life. Two such areas may be worship and family. Questions of a student’s relationship with peers and with those in authority come into focus, as does response to criticism.

In addition to the student and the advisor, the evaluative process involves Contextual Education supervisors, Faculty, Staff and the Dean. The student’s advisor presents a draft of an evaluation to the Dean and Faculty for their collegial review. This draft is drawn up after consultation with the student. The student may be asked to prepare a self-evaluation as a basis for the consultation with the advisor. Advisors have different methods of preparing evaluations. Therefore, students should discuss the process with their advisors so that there is a mutual understanding.