Looking to deepen your faith, grow your knowledge, or add to your ministry toolkit? CALL@CDSP has short online courses for you!

The Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership at Church Divinity School of the Pacific offers affordable online learning opportunities throughout the year. Each class is designed so that you can participate at your own pace and at your own time.

Each course is seven weeks, each week a separate lesson. Continuing Education Units are offered at the rate of 2 CEUs per course. Students from across The Episcopal Church and beyond join experienced online instructors in creating a classroom environment of respect and mutual learning. Courses are open to anyone, lay or ordained, of any denomination or none.

To help continuing education and local formation students structure their programs, CDSP also offers a Continuing Education Certificate in Anglican Foundations.  These courses are offered regularly to enable the student to complete the program in a timely fashion.

The Fall 2022 session runs September 12 – October 31, 2022. Registration for each of the following courses is now open at https://cdsp.edu/call/online/call-courses-fall-2022/

Church History: Anglican Identity with Rev. Daniel London

In this course, students will explore Anglican identity by practicing spiritual disciplines associated with key luminaries in the Anglican tradition. Students will be invited to pray Matins from Thomas Cranmer’s first prayer book, read the poetry of George Herbert and John Donne, sing the hymns of Charles Wesley, study Scripture with William Temple, practice contemplation with Evelyn Underhill, lament with C.S. Lewis and Desmond Tutu, and pray the Night Prayer from the New Zealand prayer book. Students will not only gain an understanding but also a personal experience of Classical Anglicanism, Evangelical Anglicanism, Anglo-Catholicism, and expressions of Anglicanism from around the world. The pressing issues of the Anglican Communion will be analyzed as students engage in the spiritual discipline that ultimately forms one’s identity as an Episcopalian and Anglican: the practice of common prayer.

The Diaconate with Dr. Rod Dugliss

The Diaconate is an online course for deacons, deacons in formation, and those wishing to be better grounded in a sound understanding of The Sacred Order of Deacons including especially, members of local discernment committees and members of Commissions on Ministry.

The course will consider the history of the Order of Deacons—what is helpful and what is not; the ecclesiology of orders, the distinctive experience of the diaconate in The Episcopal Church, how and why deacons engage in ministry and leadership, and finally, a brief look at the diaconate seen ecumenically. Among other things, the course is specifically designed to meet the formation goals implicit in the Title III formation area, “Diakonia and the diaconate.”

Systematic Theology with Dr. Stephan Quarles

Systematic theology seeks to tell a single story about God and God’s activity in the world from Creation to the Eschaton. There are points within that story that we will focus on, particularly as it comes to gaining clarity about God’s activity. The person of Jesus Christ as the central and seminal activity of the Christian story will be focused on and seen as the lens by which Christians come to learn to speak this story about God. We will, then, focus on the Holy Spirit and the Church’s role in the world and this story. Systematic theology is, therefore, the telling of this story in a coherent and methodologically ordered manner. This course will explore the specific and critical relationships between doctrines—God, Christology, Creation—and the life of the world and the Church together. Therefore, systematic theology is not a totalizing discourse that seeks to control or articulate precisely what or who God is. God is beyond the language that systematicians use, yet the work of systematic theology is to explore, wrestle, name to excess, and articulate clearly “the faith with a little understanding.”

Facing Choices: Ethics in the Anglican Tradition with Rev. Austin Leininger

Ethics in the Anglican tradition draws on a rich history of discourse as we strive to engage with our faith, living it out in an imperfect world and Church. Whether we are struggling to justify sacramental liturgy and church hierarchy in the face of Puritan attack, or determining church policy on inclusion of women and LGBTQIA+ people, Anglicans have drawn on a wide array of ethical approaches ranging from teleological virtue ethics to relational theory (both pre-feminist and contemporary).

Ethical dilemmas continue to challenge lay and ordained leaders across the wide diversity of our church—frequently in our own parishes, where each of us engages our faith to face the challenges that surround us. In this course we’ll explore how thinkers as diverse as Plato (ancient Greece) and Marcella Althaus Reid (contemporary social justice and postcolonial liberation theorist) have helped people of faith make hard choices and live faithfully with the results. We’ll spend some time conversing with history (ancient Greece, Bible, Reformation), then dive into some of our “best” Anglican dilemmas both old and new as we explore the application of our rich tradition to real life issues in the church at home and around the world.

Navigating Conflict: Speaking the Truth in Love with Rev. Alex Leach 

Reconciliation is the mission of the Church; and reconciliation is not the absence of conflict but rather the navigation of it. When approached with skill and grounded in Christ’s love, conflict is a healthy process through which we fully encounter our neighbor, we learn about ourselves, and ultimately leads to unity amidst difference. In this course, you will learn concrete skills and tools that help keep conflict healthy and safe. You will also explore the spiritual practices which form the bedrock of this work. Over the seven weeks, you will be asked to read, listen, reflect, and practice skills.

Canon Law and Polity with Rev. Thomas Ferguson

This course is intended to be an introduction to the polity and governance of The Episcopal Church, emphasizing both historical development and current issues and concerns. By the end of the course, each student will have an overview of the development of the ecclesiology of The Episcopal Church and an understanding of the Constitution and Canons. Demonstrated competency in the Constitution and Canons is one of the canonical requirements for those seeking ordination as

The Parables with Rev. Laurent Lokitakatshi-Odjango 

The course explores the parables of Jesus in their historical, cultural, and literary contexts. A close study of specific parables will determine the embedded theological themes, ethical lessons, codifications for social reconstruction, and the significance of the parabolic discourse for the Church and society today.  As we engage the New Testament parables and the different secondary readings, I look forward to a shared appreciation of the richness and multivocality of the Word of God. I also hope that you will develop more love for parables and enrich your understandings of parables for various ministries and discipleship. I am passionate about how parables can help us create more just and compassionate communities. In a world in which it has become even more difficult to live together as brothers and sisters, some parables might help us discover ways to construct social spaces of authentic humanity.

Introduction to the Book of Common Prayer with Dr. Melissa Hartley

This course will offer an introduction to the Book of Common Prayer, looking at its historical roots in the Church of England and following its development in the American prayer books. The primary focus will be on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and its use today. Since much of the theology of the Episcopal Church is contained within its worship, this course will examine how the 1979 prayer book is different from previous editions and why these changes are so significant. Emphasis will be given to the rites of initiation and the eucharist.

Theology, Justice & Intersectionality with Dr. Francisco Garcia

This class  will provide students with an introduction to intersectionality as a tool for social analysis and critical theological reflection, as a way to inform liberative praxis in various ministry and community contexts. We will engage questions and discussions of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they are treated theologically, emphasizing works from U.S. scholars of color, scholars from the Global South, women, and LGBTQ backgrounds. In addition, the course, wherever appropriate, will make connections to historical and contemporary movements for justice and liberation (both within and outside of church/religious settings) that either inform or are informed by intersectional reflection and action. Finally, we will explore theoretical and practical applications to Episcopal/Anglican ministry settings, and invite students to actively engage their own social locations and ministry contexts as they engage the course material.

Orientation to the Old Testament with Dr. Donn Morgan

This course provides an orientation to the Old Testament Scriptures for those with limited exposure to and knowledge of its content. Orientation to the whole Old Testament in the space of seven weeks is made  possible by seeing it from many different perspectives.  Sometimes we look at the whole, as scripture and canon–especially at the beginning and the end of the course.  At other times we look carefully at distinctive literary, historical, and theological characteristics.  Our goal is to be able to navigate through the whole Old Testament, studying particular texts more easily, understanding its organization and its basic messages. This course is intended to orient, interest, and motivate further study of the Old Testament, making it a constant and valuable part of ministry.

Church Divinity School of the Pacific is a graduate theological seminary of the Episcopal Church and a founding member of the ecumenical Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Responding to the challenges of contemporary society with the good news of Jesus Christ, CDSP is rooted in Anglican identity and tradition and provides quality theological education that integrates scholarship, reflection, worship, spirituality, and the practice of ministry.