To 2025 and Beyond:

CDSP faculty and staff laying strong foundation amid transition

B y the R ev . J O hn F. D wye R Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

students can use at four different UC Berkeley cafeterias, (c) funds for catering in weekly student community meals, and (d) funds for occasionally holding more elaborate special events that will help build and strengthen the student community.

As I write this article in mid-March, we have not yet finalized worship details. We will continue to worship both in person and online during and after the transition.

June Intensive and January Intersession

Our June 2023 Intensive will take place here on our Berkeley campus. It is likely that the January 2024 Intersession will be held here as well.

We have begun talks with colleagues at UC Berkeley to create a long-term agreement to host subsequent onsite intensives on their campus. We are committed to CDSP retaining a presence in Berkeley.

Making this change will create the opportunity for our real estate assets to assist in funding our mission of creating new leaders for a changing church. We will be funding people and mission as opposed to property maintenance.

Salary assistance and curacy program

Residential and hybrid MDiv students graduating in May 2023—that is, before we launch the curacy program described below—will receive salary assistance during the first two years of their post-graduation ministry in an Episcopal context. CDSP will send the students’ dioceses $60,000 each year, paid in quarterly installments. The dioceses must use this money for funding students’ positions.

Beginning with students graduating in May 2024, all MDiv students approved for ordination will be able to participate in designing a two-year curacy experience that will provide mentoring, further development of leadership skills, and experiences that foster a mindset of adaptation.

Each student, their bishop or bishop’s designee, and CDSP personnel will collaborate on the design of each curacy. Like the salary assistance, the curacy funding will be paid on a quarterly basis. Dioceses will confirm that the money is funding participants’ salaries, that mentoring is ongoing, and that participants are meeting the reasonable expectations of their position.

I will continue to keep you updated in this column on the operational follow-through for these important new initiatives. We still have a lot to decide and to learn, but we are building on many strengths as we enter this new era at CDSP.