Standing Commission on Formation and Ministry Development

Mandate

2022 - Canon I.1.2.n.4

4. A Standing Commission on Formation and Ministry Development. The Commission shall coordinate and encourage the development of all orders of ministry, encouraging and engaging all the baptized in the work of building up the church and developing best practices to ensure all churches benefit from the diversity of leadership gifts God has given us. It shall be the duty of the Commission to:

i.    Recommend policies and strategies to the General Convention for the affirmation, development, and exercise of ministry by all baptized persons (lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons).

ii.   Support Diocesan Commissions on Ministry in their support of the ministry of all the baptized, as set forth in Canon III.1 and Canon III.2.

iii.  Encourage the recognition of daily life ministries by Diocesan Commissions on Ministry, congregations, and dioceses, so that those ministries are celebrated as expressions of the ministry of all the baptized, worthy of equal respect with ordained vocations.

iv.   In collaboration with the churchwide office overseeing formation, develop and recommend to the General Convention comprehensive and coordinated policies for people across all ages and stages of life for lifelong formation as seekers and followers of Jesus.

v.    Recommend strategies to General Convention for the development and support of networks of individuals, diocesan committees and commissions, agencies and institutions engaged in recruitment, gifts of discernment, education and training for ministry, leadership development, hiring, and appointments.

vi.   Study the needs and trends of discernment and vocational opportunities for ordained leaders and lay professionals within the Church and the appropriate formation required to live into those opportunities.

vii.  Collaborate with those developing lay pathways grid and the Association of Episcopal Deacons to raise awareness of the competencies promulgated by those groups as guidelines for formation for those orders of ministry.

viii. Recommend policies and strategies to the General Convention to ensure the fair hiring and compensation of lay and ordained employees in all ministry settings, with special attention to parity across those lines which have historically divided us, including but not limited to race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, order of ministry, disabilities, or age, except as otherwise provided by these Canons.