Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2007, Page 63

5. Forming Ministers at the Frontier
A concern for ministry is surely a necessary and significant part of the agenda
of practical theology, but it is far from being the whole or the heart of that
agenda. The understanding of ministry should be broad, ecumenical and
theologically well-grounded. Nothing is worse than the acceptance of a nar-
row and outdated understanding of ministry as a pattern of practice to which
students are to be taught to conform. But practical theology still has a con-
cern for critical and responsible professional formation. It is right that the
ordained ministry should have professional standards of responsibility and
skills that are fully professional, but if the ministry regards itself as ‘a profes-
sion’ simpliciter it relegates the other members of the church, who share in
the royal priesthood of the whole people of God, to the status of clients or
patients, recipients of ministry rather than participants in ministry.
But where should the formation and education of ministers take place?
The obvious choice is between the seminary and the university. The seminary
characteristically is residential and draws its students from one denomina-
tion, church or tradition. Its strengths are that the life of the seminary can
effectively be structured around corporate and individual worship; spiritual-
ity can be given as much attention as intellectual development; and clergy
can be prepared to be faithful servants of the church or denomination. The
weaknesses of the seminary include the danger that it may become a spiritual
hothouse, encouraging types of spirituality which cannot be sustained in the
outside world; that intellectual standards may be low; that the questions and
problems of the ‘outside world’ may be more or less effectively excluded; and
that the students and staff may be too similar in theology, personality and un-
derstanding of church and ministry. Seminaries are often jewels in the crown
of one denomination and effectively obstruct friendship with those of other
traditions and the broader ecumenical understanding that friendship makes
possible.
In the university, on the other hand, the probing questions, doubts and
uncertainties of an increasingly secularised society cannot be avoided. Friend-
ships with other students of varying or no faith are easily cultivated. Vocations
are tested more rigorously, and if they survive the ordinands are more richly
equipped for ministry amidst the realities of today’s world. The theology that