Perkins offering new certification program
Perkins School of Theology, SMU, Dallas, has announced a new certifi cation in Spiritual Direction for laity and clergy.
The program will be led by Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt, Director of Spiritual Formation and Anglican Studies, Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality.
Dr. Schmidt urges those who may be feeling a call on their lives to consider the following questions:
• Where can I find conversation that leads me into a deeper relationship with God?
• Where can I find conversation that shapes my life in response to that relationship?
• How can I cultivate the ability to be a partner in that kind of conversation?
Anyone sensing that those questions and others like them lie at the heart of their deepest longing, could be a candidate for training as a spiritual director. “When I lived in Jerusalem I led people on a pilgrimage down the Road to Emmaus. We walked there, shared the body and blood of Christ, and prayed together. It was a powerful experience and I think it captures much of what we most long to discover: a sense of Christ’s presence and the passion to follow. Spiritual directors long for that for themselves and they long to create the opportunity for others to fi nd it as well.
“Thanks to the generosity of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Perkins School of Theology is delighted to announce the creation of a Certification in
Spiritual Direction (C.S.D.). Devoted to training people to serve as spiritual directors, both lay and ordained, the program is designed with busy schedules in mind and requires two consecutive years of course work over six weekends, three in 2009 and three in 2010. In 2009, they are scheduled for April 24-26, August 28-30, and December 4-6, ” Dr. Schmidt says.
The registration fee of $50 is waived for beginning the studies in April, 2009, and each course taken in 2009 is $150, otherwise they are $325.
Please request a C.S.D. application form from the Perkins School of Theology office and send it in, together with the necessary documentation, by April 17.
For more information, please call 214-768-8436, or e-mail:genevah@smu.edu.
