Uncharted Network

Local formation looks to the horizon

Big questions, brave community, faithful hope.

As more and more Episcopal dioceses build local formation programs to serve the leadership needs of their faith communities, we’re all making a way out of no way — innovating, exploring, and meeting the pitfalls and exhilaration of charting unknown pathways. We invite you to join this community of practice, to share your wisdom and experience, and to learn from the experience and wisdom of others. Join with a group of Episcopalians and other friends on the way of Jesus as we wrestle with the complexity and potential of preparing people for ministry in the 21st century.

These three questions are at the heart of our work and, we believe, the work of the Church in this era:

  • Missional Practice: How do we form leaders locally who function missionally*?
  • Beloved Community:  How do we form leaders who have Beloved Community* as the ground of their theological imagination?
  • Sustainable Pedagogy: What technology and best practices can dioceses use to offer local formation sustainably?

*glossary

Missional practice: Out of a deep belief that God has a mission and is already ahead of us, bringing that mission to life in our neighborhoods, missional practice means that we put discernment of and participation in God’s mission at the center of all a faith community might do. This is in contrast to establishment functioning, which seeks the preservation of a faith community’s identity and existence as its first priority. Find more here. 

Beloved Community: a transpartisan reality of holistic wellbeing and reconciliation across distance and division. Shalom. The kingdom of God. Find more here.