Date: 08 February 2023
At the end of their courses, Guildford’s successful Theology, Ministry and Mission degree graduates received their awards from Bishop Andrew recently.
The Local Ministry Programme (LMP) is the route for training ordinands, licensed lay ministers and ordained local ministers for the diocese.
“It’s the theological engine of the diocese,” says the Revd Dr John Valentine, Dean of the LMP. “It’s there to train and equip ministers in the churches. It’s a huge privilege to training minsters to serve in a wide variety of churches.”
The Durham University degree certificates were handed out by Bishop Andrew.
In his address, he poised the question, “Why study theology? Sometimes people are nervous about studying theology. Once you deconstruct your faith, it can be difficult to put it back together again.” But Bishop Andrew offered his audience a different analogy. “What would happen if you took a child’s tricycle apart and rebuilt it into a Harley Davidson motorcycle. That’s what we are trying to do.”
Members of the student’s parish support group were also invited to the evening held at Christ’s College, in Guildford. “The celebratory evening is one where members of those groups can come along to get a flavour of what their student is doing. It’s a shop window,” says John. “Statistically from these evenings a number of people from the parish support groups have gone on to explore what God might be calling them to do.”