Grant Helps Seminary Assist Clergy Couples

LEXINGTON, Ky.,, Dec. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ministers and their spouses face unique challenges that Lexington Theological Seminary hopes to help them address through a peer group that will meet in person and online, with the help of a grant from the Kentucky Council of Churches.

The grant is part of the KCC's new program, Health and Hospitality Opportunities for Peer Ecumenism (HHOPE), to support clergy as they learn and grow together.  LTS will form a group comprised of three LTS students and two recent seminary graduates and their spouses who will meet regularly to talk, study and reflect on the unique challenges of being a clergy couple.

Ministers and their spouses may long for friends outside the role of minister or pastor's spouse. In addition, the clergy spouse often finds him/herself confronted with both identified and unidentified role expectations. "This reality of congregational life and ministry is often such that pastor and spouse have not found healthy ways or opportunities to cultivate friendships outside the congregation.  Thus, our goal is to bring together a group of Lexington Theological Seminary students and their spouses in a peer group to assist them with developing healthy ways to address questions of service and identity when one person in the partnership is clergy," said LTS President Charisse L. Gillett.

"The fundamental goal of this group project is to help encourage long-term ministerial friendships between clergy couples in ways that will strengthen their ministries, enhance their ability to lead, and help them develop habits of well-being that will sustain them in ministry," Gillett said.

The Rev. Jan Ehrmantraut, a former general minister of the Christian Church in Kentucky and coordinator of the mentoring program at LTS, will facilitate the group.

The group will meet quarterly in person and also spend time together using face-to-face online meeting technology provided by LTS, and utilize education resources and time for reflection. The KCC grant will support the group by covering meeting expenses and by bringing together the various peer groups in the area for an annual gathering prior to the annual assembly of the Kentucky Council of Churches.

CONTACT: Beth Goins (502) 316-4575, [email protected], www.lextheo.edu

SOURCE Lexington Theological Seminary