New model builds on low-residence excellence,

The spring of 2023 marked the most significant milestone yet in a years-long season of transition and discernment at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. On January 31, CDSP and Trinity Church Wall Street announced the decision to focus the seminary’s model of theological education on the low-residence Hybrid Program that has been its main source of growth and innovation since the early 2010s (CAS in 2011, MDiv in 2014).

The model will continue the seminary’s community-centered approach to forming ministry leaders in the very contexts where most of them are likely to serve.

It will also add new elements to the program rhythm, which currently consists of online semesters alternating with January and June intensives in Berkeley.

First, the new approach will also include long-weekend sessions in New York City. During these sessions students will focus on practical leadership skills that have received increasing attention in the CDSP curriculum in recent years, including personnel management, church finance, real estate administration, community organizing, and conflict resolution. This element will allow CDSP’s curriculum to benefit from Trinity’s own expertise in theological education, especially as expressed in the Trinity Leadership Fellows program.

Second, graduates of this strengthened Hybrid Program will be able to participate in a bold new curacy initiative. In addition to providing participants with cohort-based continuing education during another critical period of their professional formation, this program will fund salaries for their ministry positions in their dioceses for the two years following graduation.