From Seminary to Parish

Ten years ago I wrote a resource for graduating seminarians called From Seminary to Parish: Navigating Your First Clergy Job Search. It shot up the best-seller lists because graduating Episcopal seminarians are a HUGE nationwide market.

Actually, I had copies printed and it was distributed mostly through diocesan deployment officers. It made the rounds for a few years but then I stopped doing anything with it — parish ministry, life, etc. happened. The 60-page manual was a product of frustration; I wrote it as I was graduating from Seabury-Western because I couldn’t find anything that would take seminarians through the process of finding a first call. The goal was to produce an accessible, user-friendly, theologically-rooted guide. With a touch of humor, of course.

I handed a copy to my new curate-to-be Anne Emry after her visit to Hingham (and after extending a call I might add) and, after reading it, she suggested it was still very relevant. So I made some tweaks and have made it available as a free download in pdf form on my website. Thanks, Anne! And congrats on your graduation from Church Divinity School of the Pacific and impending ordination to the diaconate this Saturday at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
 
Feel free to get this to anyone you think might benefit and if you have any suggestions for making it more effective I’m open to hearing them. Of course I may not incorporate the changes for another decade or so.

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