This June, 51 Episcopal leaders from over 25 dioceses around the country and throughout the Anglican Communion gathered for a week at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale to contemplate the changing needs of the Church and the world.

The Leader’s Way is Berkeley Divinity School at Yale’s inaugural year-long cohort-based learning immersion for Episcopal and Anglican clergy leaders who are poised to be catalysts who inspire their communities to bear witness more effectively to the Gospel. Beginning with six days on the Yale campus in June and continuing with seven months of online learning, leaders are grappling with the greatest challenges of ministry today and pursuing faithful innovations to meet them. The Leader’s Way program is just one dimension of a larger Transforming Leaders initiative at Berkeley that that offers online courses, workshops, and podcasts to catalyze innovate leadership within the Church. The Transforming Leaders initiative has been made possible through the support of Trinity Church Wall Street and the generosity of donors at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

There are no easy answers to the urgent challenges facing the Church and the world today. The climate crisis, racial injustice, epidemic loneliness, and the reality that many people struggle to understand the relevance of faith in daily life constitute an opportunity for profound reflection. As Church leaders wrestle with these and other global challenges, the Leader’s Way offers lay and ordained leaders a pilgrimage for the soul, a hope-filled laboratory for experimentation, and a daring incubator for new possibilities in ministry. The Leader’s Way curriculum includes topics such as:

Faithful Innovation
The Intersection of Leadership, Love & Equity
Building Strategic Alliances
How Property Can Work Harder to Support God’s Work
Digital Ministry: Creating Participatory Spaces in the New Media Landscape
Future-Ready Congregations
Leadership as an Act of Hope

“We support clergy leaders eager to stand courageously at the intersection of faithfulness and innovation in the service of creating more vibrant Christian communities. We are endlessly thankful for Trinity Church Wall Street for their generous support of this important work.” -Dr. Brandon Nappi, Executive Director of Leadership Programs, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

Employing an adaptive leadership framework, distinguished Yale faculty from across the university are helping Fellows mine our theological past and present for resources that can inspire us to meet today’s challenges in fresh ways. Each Leader’s Way Fellow develops an innovative ministry project to help propel their parish and/or larger community. Peer groups and mentors will support Fellows personally and professionally to apply the learning from the program to the practical and ongoing needs of daily ministry. One priest shared his experience this way: “Leader’s Way is a meaningful way to connect with peers seeking to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ drawing from the riches of our shared Anglican tradition with the courage to explore new or new-old approaches to mission and belonging.” -The Rev. David Wantland, St. Peter’s Church, Savannah, GA

Berkeley Divinity School
The mission of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale is to form and transform lay and ordained leaders for the present and the future Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. A Christian community of worship, learning, and service, it shares in the ecumenical and scholarly vocations of Yale Divinity School.