School for Deacons Report

The School for Deacons has had a busy year.  We are collaborating with Bexley Seabury Seminary on the Deacons Formation Collaborative at Bexley Seabury. (http://bexleyseabury.edu/deaconsformation) The new program has, as its DNA, the deacon-focused curriculum developed by the school. In collaboration, we have translated that onto an online platform and it will be made available to all of the Episcopal Church.  The self-paced, online program is deacon-focused, designed to:

• Accommodate busy schedules of those juggling family, church, and professional responsibilities
• Serve those in rural or geographically large dioceses
• Provide diaconal education more affordably
• Offer a path to dioceses who want to enhance staff resources providing diaconal formation.

Deacons being formed in the DIocese of California will be part of the DFC, but will continue to  have mentored experiential learning (MEL) in parishes and ministries through SfD. The school will also be working to add to its scholarship fund to ensure that no potential deacon experiences financial hurdles that might exclude them from pursuing ordination to the Diaconate.

Currently, School for Deacons has three students, including one student approaching ordination and two new students. We expect that we will have more students as we implement plans to support and guide people who feel called to diaconal ministry.

In April, Rod Dugliss, dean of the school for the past 24 years, retired. The Ven. Hailey McKeefry Delmas was named director of the School for Deacons. Michele Maia was hired as Administrator of the school.

For more information or to make a donation, please go to the schools web site at www.schoolfordeacons.org.

–Respectfully submitted, Hailey McKeefry Delmas