Becoming a Pastoral Leader in
the Episcopal Church in Colorado

A pastoral leader is a lay person licensed to exercise pastoral and/or administrative responsibility in a congregation. Pastoral Leaders are licensed to regularly lead the daily office services authorized by the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) as well as An Order for the Distribution of the Reserved Sacrament by a Pastoral Leader. This ministry is licensed under the provisions of the canon for licensed lay persons, and a pastoral leader must be a confirmed adult communicant in good standing in the Episcopal Church.

Guidelines for selection and training of pastoral leaders are established by the bishop. A pastoral leader is to be trained, examined, and found competent in the Holy Scriptures, the Book of Common Prayer and Hymnal, the conduct of public worship, offering reflections on scripture, leading Christian formation, church history, the church’s doctrine as set forth in the Creeds and An Outline of the Faith (BCP pp. 845-862), parish administration, appropriate canons, and pastoral care.

Pastoral leaders, once commissioned, are licensed for a period of three years.

Pastoral leaders are individuals with exceptional spiritual and personal maturity, with demonstrated gifts in conducting worship, administration, discernment, pastoral care, Christian formation, and proclamation.

They exhibit the following qualities:

  • Compassion
  • Commitment
  • Trustworthy, able to keep confidences
  • Team players, collaborative
  • Spiritually mature
  • Emotionally healthy
  • Able to set and maintain appropriate boundaries

Practical requirements for pastoral leaders include:

  • Being a confirmed communicant in good standing in the Episcopal Church
  • Engagement in the life of the congregation, including worship and stewardship, for at least one year
  • Being a respected member of the congregation
  • Completion of successful background screening

Discernment & Application Process

Individuals feeling called to pastoral leader ministry (“seekers”) should meet with a discernment priest for guidance and support. Seekers are also encouraged to explore resources for discernment found on the diocesan website. Following individual discernment, the priest may recommend taking the next step of meeting with a congregational discernment team. Details can be found by clicking the boxes below.

The pastoral leader application process opens March 1 and closes July 31. Formation for pastoral leaders begins in late August and continues through the month of May. The application is intended to help the Bishop and Canon for Formation & Pastoral Care get to know more about you, your faith journey, and your decision to take this step.

Individuals feeling a call to pastoral leader ministry should meet with a discernment priest. If the congregation has a rector or priest-in-charge, this typically will be the discernment priest. If there is no resident clergy person, the discernment priest may be a priest from another congregation in the region. The seeker and priest should meet a minimum of three times.

If it is discerned that there continues to be a call, the next step is congregational discernment. The discernment priest will call together a discernment team and request a discernment team training using the Request for Discernment Team Orientation. The Office of the Bishop receives the form and finds a facilitator to train the discernment team. There should be a convener (one of the discernment team members) who schedules the training, taking into account the schedules of the seeker and discernment team members.

The discernment team meets monthly with the seeker 3-4 months.

Congregational discernment may result in one of several paths: 1) discernment team’s recommendation for the seeker to move forward with the pastoral leader application process, 2) the seeker discerning a different call, 3) the seeker discerning a call to continued discernment, 4) the seeker discontinuing discernment.

The discernment team writes a letter to the priest communicating the outcome of congregational discernment.

The priest shares a summary of the letter with the vestry or bishop’s committee.

There are four steps to the application process:

  1. The vestry/bishop’s committee provides support for the seeker to proceed with the pastoral leader application. A statement of support can be in the form of an email or letter attached to an email and should be sent to Missioner Tracy Methe, tracy@episcopalcolorado.org. Once this letter is received, the applicant will receive a link to the online application.
  2. The applicant completes and submits the application for review by the Canon for Formation and Pastoral Care and the Bishop.
  3. The applicant completes Safe Church training.
  4. The Office of the Bishop completes a background screening for the applicant.

The application will ask you for the following information:

  • Contact information
  • Date and location of your baptism (documentation required)
  • Date and location of your confirmation or reception in the Episcopal Church or other denomination with which The Episcopal Church is in full communion (documentation required)

In addition you will be asked to reflect on four questions about your faith journey and call to serve as a pastoral leader. The written responses should be no longer than 500 words each.

Two letters of recommendation are required: one from your discernment priest  and one from a lay ministry leader in your congregation. Letters should be emailed to Tracy Methe, Missioner for Baptismal Living.

The pastoral leader application is online and can be saved, allowing you to return to it as often as needed prior to submitting it.

As part of the application, you will be asked to provide details of any training, certification, licensing, practical experience, or particular gifts that would serve you in your pastoral leader ministry, e.g., Eucharistic Visitor license, hospice care, Education for Ministry, musical gifts, theological coursework.

This prior experience and training will be considered when creating your pastoral leader formation/training plan and may reduce your training requirements.

To start the background screening process, email Missioner Tracy Methe. An invoice will be sent to the church where the applicant would like to serve. Screenings cost $200. Once payment is received, the background screening will be initiated. Screenings take 5-7 business days to complete.

Online Safe Church training takes approximately 4.5 hours to complete. To learn more and register click here.

Pastoral Leader Formation

With the approval of the Bishop and Canon for Formation & Pastoral Care, candidates begin a nine-month time of formation. Pastoral Leader formation is offered annually beginning in late August and concludes the following May.

Pastoral leaders candidates are required to complete a broad course of training and study, with components that are academic, formational, and practical/experiential. Training is administered by the formation team of the Office of the Bishop in partnership with the Iona Collaborative (Seminary of the Southwest). Most of the materials are online and self-paced, with regular online and in-person opportunities for engagement with other ministry leaders and trainees. A three-day retreat is held at Cathedral Ridge during the second half of the training to continue formation in community and celebrate the gifts of the journey to pastoral leader ministry.

Courses Required for Pastoral Leaders

Following is a list of topics covered during pastoral leader formation. The majority of materials can be completed online, on your own time. Some topics, noted below, have hands-on or experiential components.

A schedule of Zoom and in-person gatherings will be published at the start of the training.

Training is offered by the formation team in the Office of the Bishop and uses materials licensed with permission from the Iona Collaborative, Seminary of the Southwest. Course facilitators will provide access to materials and monitor online discussions.

Training liaison: Missioner Tracy Methe

Areas of study include:

Topic Location of Material Experiential Components
Safe Church courses Praesidium Academy
Church history overview Canvas/Iona Collaborative
Spiritual practices Canvas/Iona Collaborative/Formation team Daily prayer routines
Holy Scripture Canvas/Iona Collaborative Reading scripture
Book of Common Prayer and the Hymnal Canvas/Iona Collaborative
The Creeds Your Faith, Your Life
Leading Worship Canvas/Iona Collaborative Opportunities to lead worship, online and in-person
Preaching (offering reflections) Iona Collaborative Opportunities to give reflections on scripture
Eucharistic Visitor training Canvas Eucharistic Visitor course
Distribution of the consecrated elements from the reserve sacraments Formation Team Opportunity to participate in distribution of the consecrated elements from the reserve sacraments
Basics of pastoral care Canvas/Iona Collaborative/Diocesan clergy
Polity, governance, and structure of the Episcopal Church Canvas/Formation Team
Church administration Caffeinated Church, Vestry 101 modules, Administration and Finance resources on website and in handbook
Anti-racism training ChurchNext or Sacred Ground
Children & youth ministry Formation team
Practicing boundaries & self care Office of the Bishop staff
Leading formation offerings Formation team

There are two options for completing racial awareness training:

Option 1

Take the five-part series “Racial Awareness from the Episcopal Church in Colorado” from ChurchNext. This series is designed to help deepen your understanding of racial justice. Here are the titles and instructors for the series:

Spirituality and Racial Justice with Michael Curry
Whiteness and Racial Justice with Kelly Brown Douglas
Theology and Racial Justice with J. Kameron Carter
Racism and Racial Justice with Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Reparation and Racial Justice with Jennifer Harvey

The series takes approximately four hours to complete.

Option 2

Candidates may instead join a Sacred Ground cohort. This is an 11-part series with prework leading up to each session. Contact Missioner Tracy Methe for more information.

The Bibliography for Lay Ministry is extensive and is intended to help pastoral leaders go deeper in their preparations as time allows.

Bibliography for Lay Ministry >