Iona Program for The Diocese of Spokane
Iona Classes This Fall
Theological Ethics Registration
Click HERE or the photo to register!
Meets Online: 10am-Noon, Saturdays Sept 5, Sept 19, Oct 3, Oct 24, Nov 7 & Nov 21
Registration Closes on September 2.
Imagine being at a cocktail party with great Christian thinkers both past and present: whose ideas move you? Whose ideas challenge you? How does learning how these individuals thought about their faith inspire and motivate you to live yours in creative, compelling ways in your community?
In this course we’ll learn about Theological Ethics, not for the purpose of becoming scholarly theologians and ethicists, but to discover how to become Spirit-filled church leaders, both lay and ordained, who embody the Good News in our contexts through studying theological ethics.
Skills we’ll build include:
- Identifying and enforcing healthy boundaries.
- Maintaining a self-aware, contextually-sensitive, non-anxious pastoral presence.
- Serving your congregation as a reliable resource on questions of theology, scripture, contemporary ethics, and Anglican tradition.
- Facilitating difficult conversations.
- Creating safe spaces for processing and dialogue; identifying concrete strategies to address unhealthy power differentials in congregational and community life.
- Articulating the challenge of change and setting adaptable goals for the future.
- Skillfully leading a collaboration that honors and effectively leverages individual and community gifts.
This class is heavier on the reading– about 100 pages per class session plus some videos (though you’ll be looking for familiarity with, not mastery of all this material). To successfully complete this course you’ll need to attend at least 4 of the 6 Saturday morning online discussion sessions.
This course will be instructed by Rev. Arlen Farley. If you have questions before registering or would like to read the syllabus please contact Bethany Hyndman at 509.818.0976 or bethany.hyndman@iona.ssw.edu.
Church History Course Registration
Click HERE or the photo to register!
Meets Online: 7-8:30pm Thursdays Sept 10-Nov 19 (no class October 15)
Registration closes on September 7.
In this class, we are learning about church history, but not for the purpose of becoming scholarly historians. We are learning how to become Spirit-filled church leaders, both lay and ordained, who embody the Good News in our contexts through studying church history.
Church history is full of conflict, and effective church leaders have developed some skills for engaging with conflict in healthy, productive ways. Probably the most common thing that people have conflict over is change – and so through studying how the church has changed over time, we hope you will develop some practical skills you can use to address change and conflict in your congregations and communities.
Skills we’ll build include:
- Consistently identifying and enforcing healthy boundaries.
- Consistently maintaining a self-aware, contextually-sensitive, non-anxious pastoral presence.
- Adapting liturgical principles to the changing needs of the community.
- Serving your congregation as an able minister of Christ and reliable resource on questions of theology, scripture, contemporary ethics, and Anglican tradition.
- Facilitating difficult conversations (theological, social, evaluative, interpersonal, etc.).
- Creating safe spaces for processing and dialogue; identifying concrete strategies to address unhealthy power differentials in congregational and community life.
- Articulating the challenge of change and setting adaptable goals for the future.
- Identifying key points in the history and theology of ministry (both lay and ordained) and connecting them to modern contexts.
To successfully complete this course you’ll need to attend at least seven of the ten Thursday night online discussion sessions and do homework to prepare for each one. The homework will usually be a written reflection on about 30 minutes to 1 hour of video content. In class discussions will involve simulations that will have you imagining yourself as part of conflicts throughout church history and making connections between historical events and handling conflicts within your own congregations.
This course will be instructed by Rev. Kimmy Meinecke. If you have questions before registering or would like to read the syllabus please contact Bethany Hyndman at 509.818.0976 or bethany.hyndman@iona.ssw.edu.
What is the Iona Program in the Diocese of Spokane?
We offer academically rigorous training to strengthen the capacity and confidence of congregational leaders, both lay and ordained, across our diocese.
What does that practically mean?
We offer online courses where laypeople, clergy, and people pursuing ordination from congregations across Eastern Washington build their skills together. These classes use a flipped classroom model rather than lectures. This means student homework includes the courses’ information and live online meetings are used to discuss the material. Much of our curriculum is provided by The Iona Collaborative at Seminary of the Southwest, but courses are designed by our local Program Director, Rev. Katy Shedlock, and taught by clergy from the Diocese of Spokane.
This semester’s classes don’t work for me, or my congregation would like to study something else together.
The Iona Collaborative at Seminary of the Southwest provides a wide range of online courses and resources designed for small congregations at no charge at iona.ssw.edu/congregations. We are happy to help you use these resources, just contact our Program Administrator.
I still have questions!
Our diocesan Iona Program Administrator, Bethany Hyndman, loves questions (and getting to talk with people from all over the region)! You can reach her at 509-818-0976.
About our program
In the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, we dream of sacramental communities where people experience the transforming love of God in their ordinary lives. We believe that there is no more powerful or sacred work to be done in our world than for people to experience God’s love, and the church is the only institution formed for just such a purpose. We believe that people experiencing God’s love in their ordinary lives cannot help but transform their communities into more compassionate, more merciful, more just, more abundant, and more peaceful places. We believe that God can and does use anything, but God loves to use the church as the means of grace by which our world is transformed.
In order to live this dream, our diocese needs churches of confident, connected leaders, both lay and ordained, who can articulate for themselves and share with others the richness and power of our Christian faith. Our diocese needs churches led by ordinary people who have come alive to the presence of God in their place and time. Our diocese needs churches led by disciples of Jesus who are clear in their purpose, creative in their witness, and joyful in their ministry. Most of all, our diocese needs churches led by local leaders who are deeply embedded in their communities, attuned to their needs, and prepared to share the Gospel in meaningful ways that make a difference in the lives of others.
This dream is deeply rooted in our diocese’s mission to form, nurture, and develop disciples of Jesus Christ in strong communities of faith for the transformation of ourselves, our communities, and our world. We know that in order to do this vitally important work, we need to strengthen the capacity and confidence of congregational leaders, both lay and ordained, across our diocese. Our Iona School is crucial for our ability to develop this confidence and capacity. Our diocese has a long history of local formation, but never before have we had the opportunity to develop a formation program that is both so contextual and so rigorous. Never before have we had the opportunity to train lay and clergy leaders together. Never before have we had the opportunity to build a community within our diocese of people learning together in such a sustained way. We are already living the reality that the old model of “one priest, one parish” is a relic of the past, and our Iona School is critical for building a confident, collaborative diocesan network of church leaders, both lay and ordained, who can do nothing less than embody the Good News in their communities.
We know we are asking our diocese to imagine a new kind of leader – someone who may be in formation for ordination, but who more likely is not. We are asking them to imagine that this new kind of leader works alongside their local clergy, but also does things that were formerly reserved for ordained leaders under the old model. We are asking them to imagine that this new kind of leader engages in rigorous study – much more rigorous than they may have had opportunity to do before in the context of local church formation. Most of all, we are asking people to imagine that this new kind of leader is actively involved in the transformation of their community as an outgrowth of their discipleship, and that they lead others in that transformational work. This new kind of leader is not just filling a role on the vestry; they are creating sacramental community inside and outside the church, and their imagination for what God can do is fueled by their faith.