Study will especially benefit those who:

*Are becoming ordained alongside a current profession, such as physicians, educators, holistic health practitioners, business and political leaders, and social service providers.

*Intend to use their ministry training in such fields as hospital and prison chaplaincies, campus ministry, hospice and bereavement centers, AIDS clinics, care for the elderly, and other forms of social ministry.

*Plan to use their ordination to serve as a formal minister within a congregation, become spiritual educators, or teach in a retreat or other religious setting.

*Desire to combine Interfaith Ordination with profession to Monastic Vows.

Who is an Interfaith Contemplative Minister?

An Interfaith Contemplative Minister is a contemporary religious figure who respects all paths leading toward a deepening of a person's relationship with the divine, and who upholds the sanctity and oneness of creation. Through peer spiritual leadership and small faith community, Interfaith Contemplative Ministers combine spiritual practice with active participation in life.

Interfaith Contemplative Ministers are prepared to serve as spiritual caregivers to people of diverse religious and non-religious traditions. They study the scriptures and theologies of the worlds religions; learn about spiritual counseling and guidance from an interfaith perspective; gain a deepening compassion for the causes of suffering; and develop forms of worship and spiritual practice responsive to our religiously plural world. Holding that the deepest level of spiritual care has to do with liberating the seat of consciousness, or ground of the soul, Interfaith Contemplative Ministers are committed to the holiness of our relationships and our world.

Interfaith Contemplative Ministers are ordained clergy and have all the rights and responsibilities of clergy, including conducting religious ceremonies, serving as chaplains, and applying for membership in professional ministerial associations.
  

Schola Divina, in partnership with the Interfaith Theological Seminary, is pleased to announce the formation of two new programs leading to Ordination as an Interfaith Contemplative Minister and/or Profession as an Interfaith Monastic.  It is our hope  that through the renewal of the Ordination Program and the addition of a Monastic Program, Schola Divina-Interfaith Theological Seminary will contribute to the formation of new contemplative forms of practice and ministry.

Founded as non-profit 501 (c)(3) organizations by Beverly Lanzetta in 1993 and 1997, the Desert Interfaith Church and the Interfaith Theological Seminary have filled an important role in the spiritual lives of people dedicated to contemplative practice and interfaith ministry. From 1997-2003, the Interfaith Theological Seminary offered a comprehensive two-year program of study, ordaining during this period forty-eight Interfaith Contemplative Ministers who currently serve in a variety of professional and pastoral settings. For the last two years, the Seminary has not taken new students during a period of reorganization and rejuvenation.

*Participants in the Ordination/Monastic Programs develop their curriculum and complete their coursework through Schola Divina. All documentation of completed internships, coursework, and other ministerial and liturgical components of Ordination/Monastic Programs is submitted to the Interfaith Theological Seminary. Ordination and Profession of Interfaith Contemplative Ministers and Interfaith Contemplative Monastics, and formal documentation of coursework, is granted under the auspices of Schola Divina and the Interfaith Theological Seminary, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. Newly ordained and professed members join the community of almost fifty other people who have already been ordained as Interfaith Contemplative Ministers by the Interfaith Theological Seminary, and the wider community of over three thousand ordained interfaith ministers worldwide.