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Connections September 2009
Pastoral Education Consortium Planning an Online Doctoral Degree
Richard Vigilante, Executive Director
Jesuit Distance Education Network
The new Jesuit Consortium for Pastoral, Theological and Ministerial Education is planning to develop and deliver a collaborative online Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree. The goal of the 36-credit, 12-course online D.Min. program will be to provide advanced understanding of the nature and purposes of religious ministry, increased competencies in pastoral analysis and ministry skills, sustained theological reflection on the practice of ministry, and new knowledge about the practice of ministry.
The program, combining theory and pastoral practice, will strive for the integration of theological and social science knowledge to advance excellence in religious ministry. The program will enhance the general practice of ministry in its many forms as well as provide expertise in specialized areas of ministerial practice.
In keeping with the Consortium’s Jesuit mission, the program will give special, though not exclusive, attention to the Christian and Catholic religious tradition. A major concern of the program, in keeping with the mission of Jesuit education, will be to explore the social role that religious ministry can play in dealing with cultural and theological issues such as ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, enculturation, peace and justice, and spirituality.
The planned online D.Min. degree will attract new national and international online students otherwise unattainable due to location, extend Jesuit missions by offering the D.Min. program via online learning to underserved regions and populations, offer superior competency-based learning based upon Ignatian pedagogy, and create a new and growing source of revenue for participating Consortium member institutions.
Prof. Eileen Burke-Sullivan, Director of Creighton University’s Master of Arts in Ministry Program, is chairing a D.Min. planning committee to recommend the initial online courses, identify shared responsibilities for Consortium institutions, suggest the best marketing venues for the online D.Min., and investigate possible funding sources for D.Min. curriculum development.
As Fordham University is the only AJCU institution that currently offers an on-campus D.Min. degree, the Consortium’s online D.Min. may be delivered as a Fordham degree, but with its courses developed and taught by faculty from a number of participating AJCU institutions.
The Consortium for Pastoral, Theological and Ministerial Education Consortium was formed in 2008 and its membership consists of the pastoral studies/ministry programs at Boston College, Creighton University, Gonzaga University, Fordham University, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Loyola College in Maryland, Loyola Marymount University, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University New Orleans, Santa Clara University, Seattle University, and Spring Hill College.
Through the sharing of the member programs’ extensive academic and research resources, the Consortium will support its two-fold mission to (1) serve the Church in the United States by responding to today’s pastoral needs, and (2) support the internationalization of Jesuit Education by collaborating with other countries, especially developing nations.
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