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Ordination Training

Are you exploring a call to ordained ministry? ERMC offers locally rooted, mission-focused, non-residential training pathways allowing you to remain in your home and to continue with your family and work commitments whilst providing a rigorous, broad and integrated programme of study.

We work closely with colleagues in our partner dioceses, so our local knowledge helps you to get the very most out of the opportunities you will encounter as you grow into your vocation.

Our students come with a great variety of life experience, ethnic, educational employment and church backgrounds and range in age from thirties to fifties. You will eat, pray and study with people very much like you, and people very different from you!  One of the joys of ERMC is learning with, and from, such a diverse community. Friendships formed at ERMC prove to be a great source of support and strength through the challenges and joys of ordained ministry.

ERMC is uniquely positioned as a ministerial training college. The focus on pastoral theology is relevant and practical. Students and staff are diverse in their church background and a culture of generous orthodoxy prevails. Training weekends and summer schools under the wide Suffolk sky provide opportunities for personal learning, theological dialogue and formation with fellow-ordinands and readers-in-training.  It’s also a place for developing friendships  and connections across dioceses and countries.

Philip Harvey, former student

Our programme starts with a week-long Summer School, normally held at All Nations Christian College near Ware and the ERMC community gathers for five residential study weekends each year, held at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon. In between the residential sessions, students attend weekly evening classes which are delivered at regional centres in Norwich, Cambridge and St Albans and online and commit to a structured range of activities in local churches and in a social context placement. Full time students attend additional classes at one of our context hubs. Each student has a Staff Mentor to support and challenge them, and a Local Supervisor, usually the local vicar. For most ordinands, the programme is a three-year part-time course.

ERMC is a member of the Cambridge Theological Federation and has extensive links with other Church training institutions in the region. Most of our students study for a Certificate or Diploma in Theology, Ministry and Mission, validated by the University of Durham through their Common Awards. For those with significant previous theological learning we offer a Master of Arts in Theology, Ministry and Mission.