2001
Peter Van Horne
All Things to All People: Training and Proficiency of Clergy for Multicultural Ministry
The question of how to minister effectively in multicultural faith communities needs to be taken seriously if the Episcopal Church is not to lose an evangelization opportunity. One aspect of this study is a review of some of the literature concerning multicultural ministry and how it can be done well. A second aspect of this study is a review of the curriculum of the Episcopal seminaries in the U.S. and whether or not their courses include opportunities for future clergy of the church to learn how to minister in multicultural settings. We will see that some seminaries offer no courses in multicultural ministry, others have marginal or barely adequate learning opportunities, and some seminaries have excellent models to prepare people for ministry in multicultural contexts. A final aspect of this study will be a review of the results of the survey of members of four multicultural congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii in which respondents were asked to identify the traits of clergy who minister in multicultural churches. The study will show that education for ministry in multicultural contexts is not being taken seriously enough by seminaries, and that bishops, those responsible for monitoring the studies of ordination aspirants, the Council for the Development of Ministry, and the ethnic ministries represented in the Episcopal Church’s Congregational Ministries Cluster need to work together to change this situation for the better.