A Leader for the Future |
|||
The community life of CDSP happens on many levels. From classrooms to dorm rooms to apartments to the commuter lounge, seminary is a formative time for all involved, including the families of our students. Community Night every Thursday is an example of this. The entire community, commuter and residential students, staff and faculty as well as spouses, partners and children, gather around the table in All Saint's Chapel for worship and then around tables in the refectory for a meal. Fellowship continues afterwards during “staff meeting” at La Val's Restaurant. The amount of access and interaction with faculty is always commented on by visitors as well as the welcome babies and toddlers receive with a carpeted area and soft toys in the chapel and Godly Play for older children during the service. Students CDSP attracts students from around the country and around the world. They come for the diversity offered by the Graduate Theological Union and the opportunity to study with both Anglicans and students from a variety of denominations as well as those of other traditions. Students appreciate that their professors are engaged with the GTU as well as with the national and global church. Professors are interested in the real life experiences students bring to the classroom. This give and take between student and teacher runs throughout CDSP, from the classroom discussion to La Val's during staff meeting. As a student community, we strive to lift up every individual. No two of us are alike and those differences are celebrated and held. Some students are called to ordination while some are not. Some of us will take one, two or three years to complete our studies while others will need more time. Some of us live on campus while others drive miles to get here for their classes. Worship The diversity of worship and the number of opportunities for worship that CDSP offers speaks to many students. Between morning and evening prayer, noonday Eucharist and our Thursday community night, All Saints Chapel hosts 15 weekly services. Members of the community find their worship rhythm for each semester, sometimes taking on daily morning or evening prayer as a discipline. For commuter students, the way we worship can be a strong tie for them to the community even though they drive miles to get there every day. The voices of faculty, students and staff are heard from the pulpit. The Worship Committee, comprised of students and faculty, chooses experimental liturgies each semester from proposals submitted by students. The opportunity to try something new or share something with the community offers numerous learning opportunities for all involved. Faculty Many of the same things that have attracted students to CDSP have also brought our faculty here. The GTU offers educators a diversity in their classrooms which benefits both professor and student, leading to a deeper engagement with their subjects as well as opportunities for collaborative study in their selective fields with numerous peers at other institutions. There is also a collegiality found among the 11 full-time faculty persons and 10 adjunct faculty. In the same way that students feel their experiences before and during seminary are called upon and welcome in the classroom, educators continually bring their own experiences in the wider church to students in order to enrich the content of their classes and to give students footing in the real world in order to aid them in the future. Staff CDSP's dedicated and hardworking staff of 13 members plays an integral role in the life of the seminary. Major operations, from Advancement to the Center for Anglican Learning & Leadership to Alumni Relations are skillfully managed and developed by our staff. Like our faculty, our staff also work to network CDSP students and alumni with the greater church. The seminary community is enriched by our active staff participation. CDSP staffers are no strangers to the chapel. As well as worshipping in the pews, they also assume liturgical positions as well. Staff members also readily lend a pastoral ear to students. Our history is carried by many serving at CDSP. We have several faculty and staff who have experienced life behind the desks of our classrooms as students, and who have returned to play a part in the life of CDSP as we educate in the present and look into toward the future. |
| ©2010 Church Divinity School of the Pacific | Student/Faculty/Staff/Trustee Sign In |