TESTIMONY

Please submit your testimony of conversion, baptism, call to ministry and your journey into the historical church’s emphasis on sacrament and liturgy.

This should be a kind of comprehensive “spiritual resume” which should include:

• Family background, church background

• Education

• Job experience

• Significant (high and low) spiritual experiences

• How you see your call to ministry

• Your intended plan for service in the church now and after ordination if it occurs

• Identification of your gifts as you see them,

• Your expectations for the future (i.e seminary, whatever)

• Information about any relevant medical or psychological issues.

• What is your rule of life for your spiritual growth?

 GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT MINISTRY

Please answer the following:

What are your greatest areas of strength?

What are you greatest areas of weakness?

What areas of theology do you feel competent in?

What areas of theology do you feel you would like more competence in?

What areas are you hoping to grow the most through your process of formation?

What areas of ministry are you most passionate about?

From 1-10 how comfortable are you ministering fun the context of the following:

• New people

• Sick and shut-in

• Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Church

• Children

• Teens

• Adult Education

• Bereaved (death, divorced)

• Recruiting (small groups/volunteerism)

• Crisis (death, conflict, tragedy)

• Place of business or lunches/coffees

• Celebration (birth, anniversary, promotion)

• Preaching/teaching

• Leadership

• Future-casting

• Training

In a short few sentences in each scenario, how would you encourage a person towards faith in God:

1. A child under 10

2. An elderly person near death

3. A teenager

4. A person of another faith tradition

SPOUSE AFFIRMATION

Please submit a brief letter of affirmation and blessing from spouse covering the following:

• How do you feel about this ordination process for your spouse?

• How do you see yourself involved in your spouse’s ministry?

• How would YOU identify your spouse’s gifts?

SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR

The goal of spiritual formation in the ordination process is meant to establish attitudes, habits, and practices in the spiritual life that will continue after ordination. Spiritual formation during this time is meant to set the foundation for a lifetime of diaconal or priestly ministry and spirituality.” Spiritual formation is, in Benedictine terms, both a stability and conversion of life.

All candidates accepted by the COM become postulants, and are asked to join the Order of St. Anthony, where we encourages postulants to enter a more consistent prayer life and to work with a qualified Spiritual Director.

If you don’t already have a Spiritual Director there are a few ways to go about finding one:

1. Simply Google Spiritual Directors in your area. If you’re unsure about the results, contact us to confirm your results.

2. Brent and Janis Sharpe are both certified Spiritual Directors and ordained in the Diocese of St. Anthony.

3. †Bishop Mike Owen and †Bishop Beth Owen also serve as Spiritual Directors for Oblates in the Order of St. Anthony and postulants in the Diocese of St. Anthony.

For questions about finding a Spiritual Director, contact Paul Paino.

EMBER LETTERS

The “Ember Days” are days of special prayer for the ministry of the church.
Ember Days are traditionally observed after the First Sunday in Lent, the Day of Pentecost, Holy Cross Day (Sept 14) and December 13.

If you have the letter to the bishop by the end of any of these months, that is sufficient. 

Postulants in the diaconate or priesthood are required by Canon law to report to their bishop in writing at each of these seasons. Your letters might include references to the following: 

1. The content of your studies
2. Especially challenging or exciting ideas or people you have encountered 
3. The nature of your prayer life, challenges and blessings
4. Family life, joys and challenges
5. Community life
6. Recreation
7. Parish life 

It is important to do some reflecting on what the experiences you encounter mean for you. It is not enough to say that you read a book or took a course, but how did it affect you? Did you learn something that you didn’t know before? Was it helpful or challenging? Are you struggling with long held beliefs that no longer seem tenable? If you are like most of us, your spiritual journey has ups and downs. Where are you today? What works? What is hard and why? Use some feeling words. It is important for you to know and to explain your own spiritual journey for it is in that way we begin to understand and empathetically respond to another’s journey. 

Usually a page or two is sufficient. If you use e-mail, please make your letter look like one that you would send through the mail. Letters can be submitted to †Bishop Ed Gungor (edgungor@orderofstanthony.com).