Lectionary-based course in the theology and practice of preaching. Lectures, readings, assignments, evaluation and presentation of class sermons/homilies. Prerequisite: Intro course in Bible.

Explore theory and practice integral to the church's educational ministry. Lectures, seminars, small group work and possible site visits to an educational program in a faith community. Curriculum review, workshop development, teaching practice, class presentation, final research paper.

This course explores the theology and practice of ministry within the Reformed tradition and how this relates to the students' emerging pastoral identity.  Topics include:  the call, functions and roles of ministry, challenges and contexts of ministry, leadership and authority in a pluralistic context, self care in ministry, spiritual practices.  Lectures, discussions, reading, reflections, final paper.

This course will continue to focus on building critical thinking skills to assess issues in International Development from a historical and theoretical perspective as well as from a Christian worldview and missions perspective. It will also provide an overview of a range of topics in development such as gender, the environment, health and economic development. Weekly classes will include lecture and discussion. Evaluation will be based on class participation, reflection papers and final essay. Restricted to Wycliffe College students. Prerequisite: WYP1615HF (Forging the Kingdom Part 1)

This course will explore the definitions of practical theological/religious activity (i.e., religious activity as meaning-making, as practice, as art, etc.), review the ways that new scholarship has emerged to think about this activity, and understand this activity within the social ecology of micro-, meso- and macro-level social organization. It will explore the church's internal activity within the congregation and external activity as a public voice to society, with reference to specific faith communities.

This will be a lecture course with readings exploring the foundations on which individuals build their spiritual beliefs. It will explore the development of spiritual awareness in children, how we attribute causality to events, intrinsic and extrinsic religion, atrocities committed in the name of God, the variety of religious experience, cults and dogma, dimensions of denominational allegiance, new religious movements, and related topics.

An introduction to the art of planning and leading the liturgy, including pastoral offices, in the Anglican Church of Canada. Acquaintance with the current liturgical trends in the Anglican Church of Canada and with general principles of liturgical leadership. Ability to plan Morning Prayer and Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of Alternative Services. Tutorial. W 11-12. Class sessions include lectures, discussion and student field reports. Class participation, readings, multiple choice exam.

Adult Ministry is a course which will lead the participants in an exploration of contemporary needs and developmental stages of adults explored through the lenses of orthodox theology. The course will primarily be interested in faith development. The participants in this course will examine their own faith base. The value of a learning community to enhance the spiritual growth of adults in the church will be examined, along with critical issues facing adults today. Educational resources will be examined and evaluated for church ministry. Teaching is primarily done seminar style with student interaction and some lecture. Evaluation: Interview project 25%, Adult resource project and presentation 15%, Paper 30% and Ministry program plan 30%.

Personal wellness builds and replenishes the inner resources that sustain our efforts to care for others. This course is designed to assist students to recognize, understand and practice the kind of holistic personal wellness that is essential to effective ordained or lay ministry. The course is process oriented and supported by readings and written self-reflection assignments. Completion of assignments, regular attendance and participation in class discussions are all mandatory components of this pass/fail course. Restricted to Wycliffe College students.

A study of the issues involved in contemporary urban ministry: historical Christian roots; maintaining parish cohesion in the city; ministry to the community social needs; the issues facing secular work. One extended paper.

Roman Catholic Church legislation on institution of marriage with special attention to the teaching of Vatican Council II. Class participation, exam.

This course is intended to prepare candidates for ordination to preside at the liturgical celebrations of the Roman Rite. Requirements: class attendance, practicums, mid-term and final exam. Prerequisite: one liturgy course.

The course develops major themes in the history of Christian spirituality, through a close reading of selections by Plato, Origen, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Gregory of Palamas, Julian of Norwich, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Dorothy Day. Special attention will be given to ideas of "love". Critical reflection papers.

Intensive analysis of structure, content and spirituality of the Ignatian Exercises as a background for general ministry of spiritual growth and ministry in the church. Lecture and discussion. Class participation and short papers. Intended primarily for those who seek to direct the Exercises. Permission of the instructor required.

A 400-hour supervised program to deepen and/or extend the personal and ministerial growth of IFM /MAMS participants. Several options available to students in consultation with Directors of IFM and MAMS programs. Integration paper, or Competency Interview. Pass/Fail course. For Regis IFM/MAMS students only. Prerequisites: RGP3687H and RGP3688H.

This course provides the perspectives within which the participants can identify 5 variables in their work, craft or profession that become the basis for developing a spirituality that could be deepened by the Christian tradition . Online discussions. Assignments. Written final examination.

This course is designed to provide students with experience of story and its relevance for preaching.  The theology, principles and practice of story will be discussed.  Weekly practice involves composing stories for oral/aural purposes, telling stories, listening to the stories of others, and providing critical feedback.  Students may expect to learn about biblical narrative and metaphor; how story and Christian doctrine are linked; identify "stories that preach" from various cultural and other sources; explore vaious methods of employing story in sermons; discover how narrative can be used to shape sermon structure; and learn better how stories affect listeners; prepare funeral and other sermons; and adopt their writing to their own learning goals/interests concerning preaching. Class participation, short weekly assignments, two preached sermons, peer evaluation.

This pass/fail course offered to seminarians in their last semester at St. Augustine provides opportunities to investigate preaching from a Catholic perspective, discuss questions on homiletics, read key documents from the Church on preaching, preach, give feedback to fellow preachers, and reflect on the feedback received in class. Students will be assessed on a pass/fail basis for two homilies given in class, one paper on a theology of preaching, and two self-assessments.

This course focuses on a pastoral interpretation of 1 Corinthians and how this letter may be proclaimed in the life of the church today. Through an investigation of letter structure, a social cultural reading, congregational studies, and homiletical theory this course will seek to elucidate the possibilities of Paul's letter for preaching today. Prerequisites: Introductory courses in both preaching and New Testament.

What has been happening in theories of contemporary Christian Education? This course will explore a brief history of, and trends in Christian Education up to modern times, and study important contemporary Christian Education theories from the west and east. Through watching a few movies, we will analyze educational theories behind the movies, applying theories we learned. Then we will formulate our own Christian Education theories for today's church and society. Seminar, lecture, a short presentation (15%), lead a seminar (30%) and major final paper (40%), class participation (15%).

The course aims at distinguishing some of the more significant ways of conceptualizing human development in psychology and how they have influenced contemporary thinking about religious development. It will discuss the nature/nurture debate of religious development, that is, the various contextual factors and intra-psychic processes at work across the life span and their implication and influence in religious development. In the process it will explore some of the psychological issues involved in religious development and point out their applied relevance. Students will be asked to write several reports on assigned readings and a longer essay for the end of the term. A previous course in psychology and religion would be helpful but not essential.

This course will seek to integrate pastoral and family systems theory and practice with a focus on six of the most significant constructivist perspectives used in contemporary counselling. Three experiential schools: Symbolic-Experiential, Human Validation, and Emotionally-Focused paradigms, and three postmodern schools: Narrative, Solution-Focused, and Collaborative Language Systems, will be explored. Theological and pastoral integration of current research and practice will be synthesized. Lectures, discussions, experiential exercises, video materials, reflection papers, final paper.

This advanced course explores the potential for civic/ecclesial partnership for social transformation in the city of Toronto. Students will serve for nine hours a week in a secular agency dedicated to social transformation, participating in a project within the agency on its own terms. In class students will explore issues related to partnership of ecclesial and civic organizations that pursue common goals with different motivations and ways in which social transformation can occur. Although the course will focus on social transformation in the city of Toronto, students are urged to develop analogies to the towns and villages they expect to serve after they have concluded their studies. Evaluation includes two written papers and a class presentation.

Through the development of the skill of theological reflection, the participants learn to reflect on their personal and ministerial or work experiences to discern the call of transformation and integration in the midst of the Christian tradition and world realities. This group process takes place in a peer faith setting. Regular attendance required. An overnight retreat is scheduled at the end of the course. One integration paper and mission statement. Pass/Fail for BD students; grade given for AD students.

This course will provide students with an understanding of leadership in the context of a missional church. It will present and examine characteristics of the missional identity combined with reflection and exploration of its implications for leadership. Students will be exposed to the skills required of effective leaders in a post-modern, post-Christendom context. Students will be asked to read extensively, to engage a congregational and leader analysis, and to articulate an understanding of leadership in the contemporary parish. This course will combine lectures, discussions, congregational analysis, and in-class presentations.

History, liturgical theology and praxis of artistic media in worship; the "ministry" of those who create and led in artistic engagement with the liturgy. Exploration of music, architecture, stained glass, drama, visual arts, popular culture and related worship planning. Class participation, field interviews; weekly journal and oral reports; final integrative project. Prerequisites: EMP 2101, EMP 3861 or equivalents or permission of instructors. AD students enrol in EMP 5881H.

The study of liturgy as ritual activity with a focus on the discipline of ritual studies and anthropology as a resource for liturgical scholarship and pastoral praxis. The course will consist of a close examination of seminal thinkers in ritual studies, their classic and contemporary works; consideration of methodological issues posed by social science methods; relationship between liturgy and ritual, theology and embodiment, worship and culture, ritual and ethics. Weekly 2-hour doctoral seminar, readings, presentations, book review, major paper.

This seminar course will study the role that religion plays in psychological well-being, coping and adjustment. The approach will be both developmental and clinical. Religion's relationship to mental disorder, biologically, psychologically and socially, will be discussed. Religion's contribution to general adjustment, and its role in psychological intervention will be explored. Weekly written contributions to the seminar and final essay.

The course develops major themes in the history of Christian spirituality, through a close reading of selections by Plato, Origen, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Gregory of Palamas, Julian of Norwich, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Dorothy Day. Special attention will be given to ideas of "love". Critical reflection papers.

Christian spirituality as the root of western culture with an emphasis on the challenge to shape a spiritual and social vision in the post-modern world. Lectures, discussion, reflection papers.

The purpose of this course is to help students gain competence in exegetical and homiletical methods that aid Biblical preaching. It sets the following learning goals: 1. understanding the genre apocalypse and its related forms, 2. applying exegetical methods that focus on the text's form or genre, 3. using a variety of homiletical methods which focus on the form of the text, 4. and reflecting on how to use the above skills in a sermon. To meet these learning goals, the instructor is more than happy to help students individually.

What has been happening in theories of contemporary Christian Education? This course will explore a brief history of, and trends in Christian Education up to modern times, and study important contemporary Christian Education theories from the west and east. Through watching a few movies, we will analyze educational theories behind the movies applying theories we learned.  Then we will formulate our own Christian Education theories for today's church and society. Seminar, lecture, a short presentation (15%), lead a seminar (30%), and major final paper (40%).  Class participation (15%).

The course aims at distinguishing some of the more significant ways of conceptualizing human development in psychology and how they have influenced contemporary thinking about religious development. It will discuss the nature/nurture debate of religious development, that is, the various contextual factors and intra-psychic processes at work across the life span and their implication and influence in religious development. In the process it will explore some of the psychological issues involved in religious development and point out their applied relevance. Students will be asked to write several reports on assigned readings and a longer essay for the end of the term. A previous course in psychology and religion would be helpful but not essential.

The NT offers a vision of a renewed and transformed humanity. We will explore the various models of the spiritual and ethical life implied in this vision that are found in the four gospels, the Pauline letters, and the Pastoral Epistles. Special attention will be given to the first-century social and political context, especially that of the Roman Empire and its ideology. Issues of personal transformation, apocalyptic spirituality, ecstatic experience, prayer, violence, sexuality, gender, and exclusivity will be explored. Requirements: Assigned readings, participation (depending on class size), one 10-page final paper. No exams. Three books will be assigned as basic texts. Additional readings will be on reserve in the library.

This course provides an historical analysis of the evolution of Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Ontario, from the 1830's to the present. In addition students will study the development separate school boards and legislation.

The scope of what was understood as “liturgy” in the middle ages went far beyond the bare words used in the Mass, daily prayer and baptism and descriptions of how the services were performed. It included knowing the names and functions of the grades of ordained clergy (which varied from place to place) and their dress, the design of churches, their furnishing and consecration, the calendar of the liturgical year and of course the nature of the music which accompanied the liturgy.
Teaching methods: lectures, DVDs of manuscripts, video, musical recordings.

Ignatius of Loyola wanted Jesuits to be "contemplatives in a ction". This describes the desire of many Christians today and the imperatives thrust upon us to be at once boned with God and with our fellow travellers. Reading in Loyola Zizioulas, J Macmurray, early Christian and contemporary theologians and mystics. NT accounts of prayer and action in Jesus of Nazareth. 10-12 page essay.

The course evaluates the Ignatian contribution to comtemporary ecclesiology. Utilizing key texts it situates Ignatius' sense of "Church" and the Society of Jesus relationship to the Church. Explores key issues and potential problems faced by a twenty-first-century reader of Ignatius. Engagement with contemporary Jesuit theologians, and the writings of Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger. Lectures, student presentations, one short paper and a research paper.  Prerequisite: one year of theology, at least three theology courses.

The course evaluates the Ignatian contribution to comtemporary ecclesiology. Utilizing key texts it situates Ignatius' sense of "Church" and the Society of Jesus relationship to the Church. Explores key issues and potential problems faced by a twenty-first-century reader of Ignatius. Engagement with contemporary Jesuit theologians, and the writings of Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger. Lectures, seminar discussion, student presentations, one short paper and a research paper.  Prerequisite: one year of theology, at least three theology courses.