Education

[GarethB]

Andrew,

I sometimes wonder if you realy are a man of the cloth

Sure it is a far more rewrding and varied occupation than mine.

I have always wonderd what you have to do to study theology and become a minister.

[Andrew MacLean]

You have to get a good night's sleep, eat plenty of shredded wheat (weetabix, etc) and work very hard.

You get into University to study Theology with ordinary GCE or SCE passes at A grade.

Becoming a minister involves a sense of vocation that is supported by the church, and in my tradition it stil requires two university degrees (at least).

This is why we are all so very interesting!

Andrew

[John Smith]

A friend of mine from work did a theology degree 18 years ago and he ended up being the only person from his course not to end up being a vicar/curate/priest/bishop.

He went into IT. His friends from his course think he is weird!

[Louise Pembroke]

Yes Andrew, but you wear a dog collar and a dress!!

[Andrew MacLean]

And who ever said that style was dead?

[Louise Pembroke]

[Sweet]

Andrew - Do you really need to have two degrees to be a minister?! I didn't know that!! I thought it would maybe be one and a lot of vocation needs. Ok, hehe you learn something new every day! So what degrees did you do then??! And do you take them both at the same time?

Sweet X x X

[Louise Pembroke]

I reckon they need a degree in dress wearing alone, then think of those Bishop hats too!!

[Andrew MacLean]

Claire,

I think it varies according to church. Presbyterians, and particularly Scottish Presbyterians have always had a very high regard for education, and it was almost a mantra of the Reformation that every Minister ought to be his own Theologian. some churches train 'Priests", we "educate ministers"

There is also a lot of vocational training.

The ministry is not so different to other traditional professions: Ministers needed an arts degree before they could study theology, lawyers needed an arts degree beofe they could study law, Doctors needed a MB before they could study their ChB, Architects needed a degree in building science before they could study design (or was that the other way round?)

More and more nurses are graduating with a Batchellor degree in nursing and then taking a Masters. I know one Theatre ChargeNurse who has a Batchellor Degree, a Masters Degree and a PhD. I often wonder whether the surgeon calls him "doctor"

Andrew

[Louise Pembroke]

There is however some debate about nurse training and whether an all degree workforce has been all good [not enough practical experience during training], got any views Sweet?
Is there a lower age limit on entering the church Andrew?