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‘Spice up your teaching’

31 May 2013

THE South West Ministry Training Course (SWMTC) is "generally in good shape", but needs to "add spice and stimulus" to its teaching, and address its "unbalanced churchmanship", inspectors from the Ministry Division of the Archbishops' Council have said.

An inspection report, published on Monday of last week, expresses "confidence with qualifications" in the SWMTC, on which 40 C of E ordinands from Exeter and Truro dioceses are training.

The inspectors visited the SWMTC between November and January during "a phase of trans-ition", shortly after the Principal, Prebendary David Moss, had stepped down on health grounds. He retired officially on 6 April (News, 28 March).

The strengths of the SWMTC identified by inspectors include "dedicated and capable staff"; a "beneficial relationship with the University of Exeter"; and "good library and electronic resources".

But "areas for attention" include making the Anglican theological tradition "more prominent" in the course; the need for "more intellectual challenge, stimulus, and encounter"; and redressing the "unbalanced churchmanship ethos of the Course", which is "on the low side".

The inspectors were "a little taken aback", the report states, "by the age-profile of the Readers in training. Of 20 potential Readers currently undergoing training, it seems that eight will be over the age of 65 in 2013, of whom two will be over 70. The SWMTC's aspiration to attract younger candidates for Reader training needs to become a reality."

The inspection report recommends, among other things, that the SWMTC seek "to make the overall theological and missiological framework of the course more explicit", and that it devise "strategies to enable it to avoid blandness and lack of challenge in theological exploration, and to add spice and stimulus to teaching and discussion".

It suggests the appointment of a principal with "academic credibility, teaching skills, spiritual discernment, pastoral instincts, collaborative and supportive methods, leadership qualities, and political astuteness".

The full inspection report can be read at www.churchof England.org.

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