MICHAEL D. WATSON
R1 R3 R5 R6 R2 R4 R9 R8 R7
Number of 2011 seminary graduates assigned to regions
Episcopal-LCMS S
imilar changes are also taking place in other denominations. Micah Jackson, dean of community life at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, said some Episcopalian bishops are only sending the seminary candidates they know they can place in parishes upon graduation. “But it’s a myth to say there aren’t jobs out there,” Jackson said. To help with the problem of salaries for new priests, some dioceses in the Episco- pal Church are offering salary help to parishes too small or too poor to adequately support full-time ministry. Episcopal priests are also less likely to come out of seminary with massive debts because most get 100
percent scholarships and have work-study employment. The Lutheran Church– Missouri Synod is able to place all of its seminary graduates, about 200 each year, said Glen Thomas, executive director of the LCMS Board for Pastoral Educa- tion. But of the approximately 900 vacant congregations in the LCMS, 226 are listed as “tempo- rarily non-calling” and another 372 are considered permanently unable to call a pastor, usually for financial reasons.
This number of “non-calling congregations” is expected to grow, Thomas said, which will reduce the calls available to seminary graduates of the future. Further, LCMS has a program
Region 1 – 8 Region 2 – 15 Region 3 – 45 Region 4 – 11 Region 5 – 43 Region 6 – 25 Region 7 – 29 Region 8 – 16 Region 9 – 14
similar to the ELCA’s TEEM. Specific Ministry Pastors are trained through distance education, meet regularly with local pastors, and spend a week each year on a seminary campus. After two years in the four-year program, they are eligible for ordination. Begun in 2007, the SMP program has now provided several dozen pastors, often older men.
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