Charting the Course(s):
Reshaping our curriculum for the future of CDSP and the Church B y t h e R e v. M a r k H e a r n , P h D
kind of leaders we’re seeking to form our students to be—and, most importantly, why?
An educational institution has the opportunity to remake itself every so often. There are different ways it can do this: by reviewing and revamping the admissions process, casting a fresh strategic vision, hiring personnel, developing new learning modalities, or some combination of these and other steps.
This process is an opportunity to live more deeply and effectively into the renewed mission of the seminary. The faculty also understands that our curriculum allows the institution and its graduates to be compellingly faithful to God’s work in the world and through the Church in our contemporary time.
I believe setting a course through a focused mission and strategic vision is the foundational step toward institutional change. Within the past year, the CDSP Board of Trustees has committed to an understanding that preparing priests for the Episcopal Church is our seminary’s mission and that our strategic planning to carry out this mission should build on our successful low-residence Hybrid Program.
It may at first sound like hyperbole to claim that refining program outcomes, (1) a vocational vision for ministry tied to serving a particular course scope and sequence, learning neighborhood, community, population, objectives, and related details should or context; and (2) an imagination for be an act of witness to God at work in forms of Christian community that our world and to the life-giving call can flourish in a pluralistic, of the Church. We believe this is not increasingly post-Christian society. just true but essential, a means to developing faithful, prophetic voices amid today’s cultural ambiguity toward We believe these admissions criteria organized religion and Christian faith. send a clear signal of the understanding of leadership formation in our renewed mission. The faculty has worked hard during the past few months, guided by the We are preparing priests who will leadership of our new president and build on a strong sense of call in their dean, to consider the purpose, shape, local setting. Our curriculum will give and content of a new curriculum to them the knowledge, skills, and match our new model. We have the dispositions to increase the impact added benefit of considering what the of God’s mission in that place and formation of priests can encompass cultural context. We are preparing through not just a four-year Hybrid priests who are excited to lead faith MDiv Program but also a two-year communities beyond business-aspaid curacy following graduation. usual models and approaches. Our The opportunities before us are great. curriculum will give them the training they need to lead creatively in the Who Are We Forming, and Why? Church of tomorrow. While the allure of doing something new and bold will always tempt those I often ask myself, “What is your PhD of us with a penchant towards for?” and similarly, “Who is your PhD creativity, the purpose of examining for?” At the heart of these two queries and redesigning the curriculum is lies a concern about identity and vocamuch more than stamping a new tion. Our faculty feels called to bring brand onto old practices and priorito bear on our teaching the best of ties. Our conversations have sought academic research and insight as well to get to the core question of what as the best of churchwide wisdom
We are committing to this mission and approach in all aspects of the seminary’s operations, including academics. One of the first undertakings, and perhaps the most extensive, is revising our curriculum. What Is Curriculum Revision? Curriculum revision is a multilevel process the faculty conducts to examine the overall education and formation provided by the institution, most notably in its stated course curriculum. A strong curriculum seeks to support students in successfully achieving certain outcomes. Course offerings and co-curricular scaffolding should be realistically aligned with those outcomes.
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We have achieved significant clarity on these questions already. Among the many student characteristics we are seeking in our new admissions profile (see cdsp.edu/apply), two are especially relevant to this question:
and practice. We are placing the health of the Church, its leaders, and its gathered communities at the center in this reimagined curriculum. And as we consider seriously these questions about how to best serve our students, the process is changing the way we see our faculty vocations, personally and collectively. Unsurprisingly, it is already changing our institution and requiring us to keep asking “Why?” each time we step into the classroom or log in to engage with our students. ‘On the Right Track’ In a recent curriculum revision meeting, Dean Fowl shared with the faculty that a telltale sign to know that we are on the right track is when the faculty can move from calling a course my class to our class. In that spirit, we are planning to do more teamteaching, conducted in a multidisciplinary fashion. For example, a traditional way of delivering a course in systematic theology is to ask a trained subject expert to design
and deliver the course individually, according to their own understanding and priorities within the discipline, perhaps bringing in an occasional guest to offer their thoughts on a given subject for that week. In the redesign, our faculty is exploring our pedagogical commitment to have different disciplines converse with one another in certain courses. For example, a pastoral theologian might co-teach with the systematic theologian, for the purpose of more intentionally engaging how Christian doctrine
shapes, and is further shaped by, its pastoral implications. A multidisciplinary, co-teaching approach also sets up a collaborative pedagogy where seminarians see subject-matter faculty speak with one another through their expertise and differences. Seminarians get to see learning “being made” in front of them, through the faculty’s own collegial learning and engagement. We anticipate that the implicit learning through this explicit curriculum design will be invaluable for students’ future ministries: how to commit to lifelong learning, how to share leadership and work amid difference and disagreement, and much more. This curriculum revision is exciting work for our faculty. To be sure, it is difficult and sometimes laborious. But we are energized by knowing that it is well-aligned with the mission of our institution. Obviously, there is much more detailed design and consultation work ahead before our projected launch of the curriculum for our incoming students in the summer of 2025. For now, know that this revision process has awakened in us something fresh. It is keeping us focused and faithful to the compelling wider work to which God in Christ is calling our faculty, our institution, our students, and the Episcopal Church.
CDSP faculty gather for procession at the 2023 Baccalaureate service.| Photo by Richard Wheeler
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