Introduction to the Orientation & Equivalency Intake

Formation Hours: 0.5

Part 1: Welcome

You are already ordained. That is the first thing to say, and it shapes everything that follows.

Somewhere, at some point, a bishop laid hands on you and the Church prayed. Whatever has happened since — whether you have served three decades or three months, whether your ministry has flourished or been quietly starved of opportunity, whether you left your previous jurisdiction gladly or with grief — that act happened, and the Apostolic Old Catholic Mission does not propose to revisit it or to improve upon it.

So this course is not going to form you. You have been formed. It is going to do something narrower and, we hope, more useful: it is going to show you how this particular Mission understands the faith you already hold, so that you can decide honestly whether you want to belong to it, and so that we can decide honestly whether we can receive you.

That is a mutual sentence, and it is meant to be.

You are here by invitation. This course cannot be applied for, enrolled on, or bought; a place is offered only after an enquiry has been received and considered. There is no fee. That is deliberate, and it is worth saying at the outset: a course standing between an enquirer and incardination, charging for the privilege, would sit uncomfortably close to the practice this Mission exists to avoid. Your place was given rather than sold, which makes it an act of trust on the Mission's part. Please treat it as one.

Part 2: Why a Bridge Is Needed at All

An honest question, and one you may already be asking: if my orders are valid, and the Mission accepts that they are valid, why must I do anything at all?

Because valid orders tell you what a person is. They tell you nothing about how a particular community lives.

Two priests may both be validly ordained and both be entirely orthodox, and yet one may come from a tradition where the bishop's word settles every matter, and the other from a body governed by committee vote. One may have been taught that the altar rail is a boundary to be guarded; the other that it is a threshold to be opened. One may never have handled a safeguarding disclosure; the other may have handled several, in a jurisdiction whose reporting law differs entirely from the one they are moving into.

None of these differences is about validity. All of them will surface within a month of ministry, usually at the worst possible moment.

A bridge exists so that you cross the water on purpose, rather than discovering it by falling in.

Part 3: On Experience

Candidates arrive here with enormously different histories. Some have been ordained a fortnight and have had almost no preparation. Some have thirty years, a doctorate, and a shelf of published work.

Everyone completes the same course, in full, with no exemptions. It is worth explaining why, because the well-qualified sometimes find it puzzling and occasionally find it insulting, and it is meant as neither.

There is a story told of a person applying for work behind a bar. Asked whether they had experience, they said no. "Good," said the interviewer, "you're hired." The surprise on the applicant's face was answered simply: there would be no bad habits to undo.

The point is not that experience is worthless. It plainly is not, and the Mission is glad of yours. The point is that a bridging course is not a reward for prior service; it is an introduction to a particular house. Long practice elsewhere is sometimes exactly what makes the crossing harder, because habits formed under different assumptions do not fall away simply because a covenant has been signed. The priest who has said the same words in the same way for twenty-five years is not being asked to think less of those years. They are being asked to notice which parts of them travel, and which do not.

If you have very little experience, you are not behind. If you have a great deal, you are not ahead. You are both at the near end of the same bridge.

Where "Equivalency" comes in. The word does not mean that prior study reduces what you must complete. It means that your prior formation is assessed at enquiry so that the Rector can determine whether anything further is required beyond this course. Equivalency can add. It never subtracts.

Part 4: What This Course Will Ask of You

Twenty-five Formation Hours, across twelve weeks, to a published schedule. Four quizzes, two short written reflections, one video of you leading worship, a set of documents, and a conversation at the end with the Rector.

That is deliberately modest. The Mission is a body of unpaid, self-supporting clergy who hold ordinary jobs and carry ordinary responsibilities, and it would be inconsistent to ask you to prove your seriousness by producing the volume of writing expected of a full-time postgraduate. Seriousness is not measured in word count. If it were, the busiest and most faithful among us would always score worst.

What the course does ask is that you actually read the Mission's documents. There are five of them and they are not short. That reading is the largest single component of your twenty-five hours, and it is timetabled rather than assumed, because a cleric who has not read the Statutes cannot meaningfully promise to keep them.

Part 5: What Completing It Does Not Do

It does not incardinate you. It does not confer faculties, title, office, or any authority to minister or to speak in the Mission's name. It does not oblige the Rector to receive you.

This is stated at the beginning, and it will be stated again at the end, because it is the single most common misunderstanding in the independent sacramental world and it causes real hurt when it surfaces late. Academic success here is a prerequisite. It is not a promise.

What you are guaranteed is honest dealing: that you will be taken seriously, answered plainly, and treated with courtesy at every stage, whatever the outcome.

Part 6: How to Work Through This Course

Read the unit pages properly rather than skimming them for the quiz. The quizzes are drawn at random from banks of fifty questions, so there is no reliable way to guess what will appear, and no advantage in trying.

Do the reading in the order it is set. The documents build on one another, and Stream 1 makes considerably more sense if the Statutes have been read rather than glanced at.

Keep a notebook, physical or digital. Both written reflections will be much easier if you have been jotting things down as you go, and the viva voce will be easier still.

Ask questions. The Institute would far rather answer a question early than mark a misunderstanding late. A good-faith question has never counted against anyone.

"I am confident of this very thing: that he who has begun this good work in you will perfect it, unto the day of Christ Jesus." — Philippians 1:6, CPDV

Before you move to the next unit

• Confirm that you have read the Orientation & Equivalency Intake Prospectus in full.
• Confirm that you have received and noted your twelve-week schedule.
• Confirm that you have downloaded the five core Mission documents listed in Unit 1.1, and know where they are saved.
• Confirm that you understand that completing this course does not guarantee incardination.