Diaconate Formation Programme

 

After your diocesan director has presented you for interview to your bishop and the selection panel, you will begin a four year part time course at St. Mary’s College, Oscott, of human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation.

 

The aim is to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to become an effective deacon. During the academic year, you will be required to attend at Oscott on nine Saturdays, a weekend and a three day retreat. Your formation will continue at home (six to eight hours study per week), with supervised pastoral training and spiritual direction. You will have a personal development plan with a formation tutor to assist you. After ordination, for those who wish, there is the option of completing two years of further study in order to gain a Masters in Applied Theological Studies (MPhil).

 

The Oscott programme is based on a bold and innovative curriculum. It is not a scaled down seminary course, but starts out from the specific intellectual, spiritual, pastoral and human needs of diaconate ministry today. It seeks to form deacons who will be men of the Church configured to Christ the Servant, but with a special emphasis on being in the midst of contemporary culture as agents of evangelisation and mission.

 

What about candidates who are married?

 

The programme takes seriously the important role a wife and family play in a deacon’s life, and so with due sensitivity, we aspire to assist a deacon’s wife to come to the fullest possible knowledge and understanding of her husband’s vocation. Apart from those aspects pertaining strictly to diaconal assessment and ordination, wives are warmly welcomed to attend and be involved in as much of the programme as they wish.