Continuing Education

Purpose

To encourage the development of small groups across the country who gather on an ongoing basis for mutual support and education.

This style of continuing education offers many advantages over single events:

• People who attend one-time events often get discouraged trying to put new ideas into practice in their home settings. An ongoing program allows for ongoing reflection on how to put theory into practice.
• Learning often happens best in a community of people who know one another’s strengths and weaknesses and can help push one another’s boundaries.
• Transformative learning takes time and reflection. A weekend event, or even a two-week course, usually leaves people with more questions than answers. The best way to learn so that the learning makes a difference in one’s life, or the life of the church, is to seek out opportunities for regular, disciplined, and ongoing reflection on what one is learning.

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Who Can Apply

These grants are available to congregations, presbyteries, Conferences, and local consortiums of congregations or church-related bodies.

Preference is given to applications that

• offer a learning opportunity to members of more than one pastoral charge, or offer the sort of learning opportunity that is beyond the scope or mandate of a single pastoral charge to present
• demonstrate partial funding from other sources in addition to this granting fund

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Examples of Recent Grants

• Francis Sandy Centre in southern Ontario received a grant to gather Aboriginal ministry personnel together every three months for mutual support, networking, and educational opportunities.
• An ongoing, city-wide study group in Regina received a grant for all their participants to attend a continuing education event at Calling Lakes Centre, on the understanding that this would provide discussion topics for their ongoing monthly meetings for several months after the event.
• Several ministry personnel in large, cathedral-style churches across the country received a grant to help them meet regularly over the next two years (face to face and by conference call) to help them reflect on strategies for ministry that are unique to these kinds of churches.

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Application Deadlines

Application deadlines are February 15, May 15, and October 15.

• Save this Rich Text Format form to your computer [RTF: 1 p/34 KB]

Applications that do not follow these guidelines will not be reviewed.

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Where to Send Your Application

E-mail is preferred wherever possible.

Continuing Education
Congregational, Educational, and Community Ministries Unit
The United Church of Canada
3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4
E-mail: Continuing Education