The following information may help you to prepare for what may unfold as you continue in your path toward becoming an ordained Interfaith minister, chaplain, or spiritual care provider.
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” (Rumi)
“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross,
there lies your vocation.” (Aristotle)
Orientation to The Chaplaincy Institute begins with you, with a sense of calling that you may have experienced. Perhaps you have had inner whisperings since childhood that have spoken to your heart, mind and whole being. Some call this voice “God,” hearing it in a church or temple.
You may hear the voice in the silence as you sit on your meditation cushion—a voice that says, “Serve with compassion.” Your moment of calling may have been experienced hiking up a mountain and feeling the wind tugging at your soul. The “Call” may have come to you while you were giving comfort to a stranger injured in a car accident. Your life may have been touched in some way by a clergy person of your own faith, or by a person from a faith totally different from your own. You may have had a moment in the hospital when you witnessed a chaplain and had a sense of recognition, “This is what I am born to do.”
We offer gratitude for all that has formed you along the way and has allowed you to become who you are today. We bless all that has brought you to this present moment in your Interfaith Journey.
The Chaplaincy Institute is an adult learning community and Interfaith seminary. As such, we recognize and value the vast life experience that you bring with you. We agree with a wise spiritual elder Anna Zilboorg, one of MIT's first woman professors, who once said:
“You know you have found your home when you can bring your whole self with you.”
It has been our experience that everything you have ever lost, and mourned, created and celebrated, suffered, pondered or prayed over can ultimately be of service in “The Great Work” of bringing care and comfort to humanity and our world.
Each month that you immerse in study of a particular faith tradition and attend a 5-day module of classes, you are completing a portion of the journey. You will find your own rhythm to your days of study with us, as you continue towards your destination of becoming an ordained Interfaith minister, professional clergyperson, chaplain, or spiritual care provider.
The following touches briefly upon some core elements of the curriculum of ChI's Interfaith Ordination program:
- The curriculum include sacred texts from the world’s wisdom traditions. Homework assignments, selected with Interfaith ministry in mind, offer doorways into the texts for each area of study. You will enter the pages of the Islam's Qur'an, Judaism's Tanach, Christianity's Bible, Buddhism's Dhammapada, and Hinduism's Bhagavad Gita. In addition, we ask students to visit and participate at different religious centers of worship in their home communities, and to note and reflect upon any particular responses and reactions to the experience that may arise.
- During each module, a contextual learning trip to a center of worship further integrates the module learnings. Recent field education experiences have included a Mosque...a Sikh temple...a Christian church...a Hindu temple...a Buddhist temple...a Jewish Seder and a Song of Songs service.
- Each month students in the Ordination Program prepare and present a short sermon for other students in the class. Sermon presentations are the part of each module where we are blessed to discover the gifts and talents of our students, as we come together to learn from each other. Sermons—like our studies overall—are not required to be in the didactic verbal presentation style. Students are welcomed to use creative expression to convey their thoughts and feelings to the community. Preparing and offering sermons is an important part of each module. Shy students get support and encouragement to find their personal voice. The contributions of our students transcend the limits of educational exercise itself, becoming part of our interconnections with other members of the student community, as well as part of the growing collective body of interreligious wisdom that is so essential and needed in our world today.
- As part of our Ordination program, students will have the opportunity to co-create a worship service for our community that includes the skills of developing liturgy, using sacred texts, and offering prayer.
Cultivating willingness, un-knowing, and humility, as a spiritual practice allows us to become kind witnesses and compassionate companions as we join those we may serve in the land of questions like the ultimate: “How could God have allowed this to happen?” We learn that we are called at times to be silent containers of loving presence as we witness suffering that we cannot change or fix, and that our silence and compassion, not our answers, are the greatest gifts we can offer. Then our willingness to be present to the truth of what is becomes a spiritual capacity that we can bring to the service of our ministries, as well as to life itself.