Montreal Dio is taking steps to expand our programming in new ways to serve the changing needs of the church. This fall, we’ve hired our first-ever Director of Community-Based Formation, Jessica Stilwell.
It is clear to us, as it is to many other people, that we are in season of significant change in the church. I find it helpful to think about this season of change in this way: one model of being church together is no longer working as well as it once did. This model depended on owning the building where the congregation worships, having the money to pay for a full-time, seminary-educated priest, and having volunteers to run the committees and programs that are central to this model. In other words, it’s a model that depended on buildings, budgets, and bureaucracy.
Many of us will be familiar with the ways in which all the aspects of this model are under tremendous strain. For congregations that are struggling to maintain this model, it can be easy to feel like we’ve failed if we have to sell our building or can no longer afford a full-time or half-time priest. But it’s helpful to remember that this model of church is quite recent: in the 2,000 year history of the church, we’ve had seminary-educated clergy for only about 150 years. The Acts of the Apostles tells us all about the early church: somehow, they managed to be the church without a huge (or really any) committee structure.
This season in the life of the church is challenging, yes, but it’s also an invitation. It’s an invitation to imagine what new models of being together in Christian community we need to respond to the times in which we find ourselves. As principal of Dio, it is clear to me that we will continue to need seminary-educated clergy in the future. But we need more than that as well, and that’s where we’re headed with our new work in Community-Based Formation.
The vision of Community-Based Formation centres on three little words—in, as, and for. We believe that Christian formation needs to be offered not just to people who come to our building on University Street in downtown Montreal but in the communities in which people live, work, and worship. We want to come to you.
Western modes education, including our seminaries, has long centred on educating and credentialing individuals. That’s important, but we know that many of us learn better when we are learning with other people. That’s why we want to offer formation to a community as a community. Change happens when groups of people share a vision and we want to help congregations expand their imagination together.
Finally, formation should be oriented for the community, helping a congregation in its witness and service towards the broader context of which it is a part.
We have been deliberate about using the word formation (rather than, say, education). We believe that God is calling us in this season not just to learn more but to love God (and love the world) with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. All our communities are being called to discern what gifts God has given us, what new questions God has placed on our hearts, and then imagine together what new models of church God is calling us to.
In the job advertisement for the position of Director of Community-Based Formation, we said we were looking for someone who understands the church is in a moment of significant transition and is energized and not daunted by that reality. Jessica Stilwell is such a person. Jessica is a member and former warden at St. Matthias’ in Westmount and a doctoral student in practical theology at Université de Montréal. Throughout the search process, Jessica demonstrated a remarkable ability to think creatively about how churches learn together and how theological education can be rooted in the realities of local communities. Her commitment to relationship-building, background in collaborative learning, and exceptional competency in both of Canada’s official languages make her well suited to help lead this new area of our work.
We begin this work with a sense of hope and expectancy, but also with many unanswered questions. We have a sense of the direction we need to move in, both as a college and as a broader church, but we don’t have a map to get there. That’s what we’ll be creating together, both as a staff in the college and with the congregations who wish to partner with us in this experiment. As we develop this in the coming months and years, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact me at [email protected] or Jessica at [email protected].