Introduction

Grace Theological Seminary's mission is to educate and train non traditional students to enter into ecumenical co-vocational Social Justice-Sacred Activism ministries as manifested through their gifts, abilities, and strengths. We honor Romans 12: 6-8 as our educational foundation and baseline.

Discerning a call to ministry while working to support oneself and/or a family can be daunting for some people. If the call is received by persons who are hesitant to answer for cultural, social, economic, racial, gender, denominational, or age-related reasons, they may reluctantly decide not to answer the call at all. Such persons can be either pressured to decline by the external circumstances affecting their decisions, or they may have internalized ways to either delay their response, or stop responding to their call altogether. 

When this occurs, their talents, their life experiences and their potential contributions to professional ministry service are lost to future generations.

In 2005, John Plummer, a doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Foundation explored the Independent Sacramental Movement and its then current methods of educating future clergy. After studying his research, this doctoral project student who is an long-time educator, a senior-aged woman of color and a progressive Old Catholic Church bishop understood the bold implications of its results and responded by founding an Independent Sacramental Movement seminary within a private religious college for non traditional students. 

Grace Theological Seminary was founded as a private college in 2020. It is a 21st century college such that its administration, faculty, scholars, and support system are global. Every faculty member, scholar, and administrator must have the seminary on their phones and in their homes. Some of our livestream lectures are taught in real time from Europe to attentive scholars in the United States. We have scholars in Germany discussing their ministry with the vocations office in Georgia, U.S. We have Deans in Rome communicating with members of their department in Florida. We recognize but do not cling to 19th and 20th century educational methods. 

It is intended that the graduates will be ordained as ecumenical, interculturally-proficient, highly-competent clergy. They will serve in ministries in a myriad of ways including planting or serving with non-denominational churches and organizations, or become self-employed in ministries for which they are educated and trained. 

In preparation, I attended certifying programs for online teachers, studied instructional design, and enrolled in programs that specialized in teaching distance education, ecumenical studies, and intercultural competency. I studied paradigms and elements of Vatican II and the World Council of Churches and into which I integrated a curriculum based upon the multicultural social justice-sacred activism of Liberation Theology. I then synergized all of the above into a defined curriculum of 21st century online teaching and instructional design principles based upon a solid andragogic methodology.  I recruited faculty from among my network of teachers, and donors from whomever I encountered.  In 2021, Grace Theological Seminary officially became a college. We then requested and received a religious exemption from state jurisdiction, and then applied for and received a 501 (c) (3) designation. In order to attract the attention of potential students who did not fit through mainstream doors, I taught free online mini-courses in spirituality and ministry and invited my address book. Former peers who had discerned a call to ministry but were deep into their current careers or who had retired began to inquire. Most had been unable to answer the call for one or more of the above reasons. The first class was enrolled in 2020, and were ordained in 2023. We have just enrolled our class of 2027. The seminary is now pursuing accreditation. 

This doctoral project, entitled An Ecumenical Celebration of Success is a liturgy that I created for the first ordination ceremony of Grace Theological Seminary. The liturgy is ecumenical, intercultural, and inclusive of the rites of ordination of the Roman Pontifical, elements of the World Council of Churches, the ceremonies of the Liberal Catholic rite liturgical worship. The doctoral project which includes both the written liturgy and video of the celebration, clearly demonstrates the paradigms and elements that are embedded within the Grace Theological Seminary curriculum and is framed from within an overarching Feminist social justice-sacred activism structure of Liberation Theology.

The Literature Review in this doctoral project will answer Dr. John Plummer's question, "how do independent sacramental churches approach the difficult issues around clergy training", from within the Grace Theological Seminary's paradigm. 1. In the Research Methodology section, the intercultural competency application necessary to establish polices and procedures will become apparent in the Scholar's Handbook. The outcome of all these elements may be observed in the Conclusion section in which the liturgy accompanied by its celebratory video is located.

This liturgy is my answer to the question Dr. Plummer posed in 2005. As such, the liturgy may be employed by non-traditional seminaries who may wish to incorporate its components into their programs, and it may assist future researchers who will study the many paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement. It is my intention that this project is widely shared. Hence, the online presentation. Too often dissertations and projects containing important information that may make a positive difference to someone or something are difficult to locate unless one is a researcher. I happily join my colleagues who are now making their work available to everyone who is interested in entering into the discussion of the Independent Sacramental Movement, ecumenical studies, feminist liturgy, or 21st century educational methods 2.

Last, but certainly not least, Grace Theological Seminary is a progressive, religious private callege whose focus is upon Social Justice-Sacred Activism ministry. As such, this doctoral project is presented in a multi-modal format with text documents that can be read online or downloaded. It is my hope and desire that readers of this project and potential future researchers will not add to nature's human-generated burden by printing these documents, but by reading them online.

Bishop Sophia Linda Blakeney Jarvis OCL, S.T.L.

Auxilium Meum Ab Alto

January, 2024

1. Plummer, John P. The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement  p. 120. Berkeley, Apocryphile Press

2. Zak, Rebecca  Raising Creativiety 2014   https://youtu.be/g8Kl8TFUURU?si=4ooRbrSRpEi3ujjm