Applauding St John's Nottingham for context based training for ministry

When I interviewed for the post I held at St John's from 2007 to 2011 as Mixed Mode and Practical Theology Tutor, in the bit where I got to ask the panel questions, I asked what the rationale for residential training was and why all their training was not mixed mode, contextually-based. I feel that question has, in a sense, borne fruit (though I am by no means claiming a direct causal link) in the developments that David Hilborn outlines in the statement linked to by this post. I do indeed pray for the wise implementation of this bold, brave, step and for its fruitfulness in the lives and ministries of lay and ordained people training and trained by St Johns.



It seems to me that perhaps this course of action could not be taken earlier because the conditions were not in place: the Ministry Division of the CofE was certainly not very comfortable with the approach of mixed mode training and St Johns itself had to adapt to that climate, having innovated to produce a mixed mode pathway in the first place. Something like this was needed to take it to the next level.



I don't any longer have an inside view on what more precisely it will all look like. However, I do hope that something more of the vision I articulated at my interview might be able to be expressed: that each student can find a high degree of customisation of their learning, driven by the questions, demands and live issues of their context, so that they can not only learn about things, but so that they can learn how to learn in ministry and develop skills and habits of reflection.



▶ A statement by Revd. David Hilborn, Principal of St John's College Nottingham - November 12th 2014 - YouTube