Training Pathways

Westcott House offers a range of training pathways and academic awards to suit students’ different learning styles and experience. In partnership with the Cambridge Theological Federation, we offer a range of degrees awarded by Cambridge University (Cambridge Awards) and Durham University (Common Awards).

We will discern with you what the appropriate training pathway and academic award is for you, and guide you in your application for that award. For those in training for ministry, the academic award works with other elements of your training pathway promoting integrated practice.

Most ordinands follow our core integrated pathway, this is the classic full time residential formation experience that you will find described across this website. The core integrated pathway is compatible with any of the academic awards available to ordinands and enables ordinands to develop secure foundations for ministry through an appropriate balance of worship in community, academic study, placements in church and other contexts, and in-house teaching focused on integrating this range of experience for lifelong ministerial practice. If you follow our core integrated pathway we will work with you and your DDO to shape your formation at Westcott House to respond to your own sense of calling, the areas for growth that have been identified for you in discernment, and the needs of the church.

We are also able to offer full-time residential context based training at Westcott House for ordinands whose formation would benefit from an intentional shift of emphasis towards time in context. This pathway enables deep engagement with mission and ministry in a local parish, alongside depth of study and formation in the sacramental, inclusive, and diverse community of Westcott.

Full-time residential context based training works within the existing full time residential pathway at Westcott House. A shift of emphasis towards time in a ministerial context is supported by focused teaching attending to the integration of this experience with the theology of ministry. Modules in corporate engagement with context and mission and ministry in urban and rural contexts are all co-taught with ERMC and learnt alongside full-time context based students at ERMC.

Candidates for full-time residential context based training typically take one of the following academic awards:

• Undergraduate level awards: either the DipHE or the BA offered through Common Awards
• Postgraduate level awards: either the PGDip or the MA offered through Common Awards

Candidates can discuss with the most suitable academic award in an admissions interview.

Full-time residential context based ordinands live, work and worship in a range of contexts that give a distinctive richness to this mode of training. Students in full-time residential context based training are fully integrated into the worshipping life of Westcott House and our tutorial system, but with attention to identifying the formational opportunities of more time in context.

Ordinarily 2.5 days per week, typically Sunday, one other full day and appropriate prep time, will be engaged in ministry, mission and worship in ministerial context. You will be working with an experienced supervisor, usually the incumbent of the parish or benefice. Alongside the primary context, ordinands will undertake shorter placements in a range of church and social contexts including the opportunity, if appropriate, to make use of Westcott’s link with the Diocese of Manchester. These will provide valuable contrasting experiences to challenge and open up reflection on contextually sensitive ministry across the breadth of the Church of England.

Ordinands in full-time residential context based training live in accommodation either at Westcott or in/near their context, enabling participation in several communities of formation. From time to time dioceses arrange for ordinands to live at Westcott House as ‘weekly boarders’, with their regular church placement taking place near their main home, and this would also be possible for full-time residential context based ordinands. Wherever they live, context-based ordinands are fully grounded in community life at Westcott, sharing in the rhythm of prayer, study, meals and reflection.  Within this, they form a reflective learning community with other students in full-time residential context based training, as well as those they are studying alongside in the Cambridge Theological Federation. Our Director of Contextual Training meets regularly with the full-time residential context based students for reflection and support.