This website is intended partly for the use of Lay Academy of Utica Presbytery students, faculty, and the academy's steering committee. It also provides an introduction to the programs and courses of the Lay Academy for those who are considering entering its programs. We trust that others will also find this website useful. Please feel welcome!

STUDENTS, you can access course pages either from the Quick Links box on the left of this home page or from the Curriculum Page, which contains brief descriptions of each course.

Now Accepting Applicants: Preaching

the Lay Academy is now accepting applications for the Preaching course, which is a core course. This year, the year-long course will begin with a one day retreat at St. Margaret's House, 47 Jordan Road, New Hartford, NY 13412, Saturday, June 15th, 2012. The retreat will feature Dr. Barbara Moore, professor in preaching & practical theology, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. The cost of the retreat is $30.00.

Participants must register with Rev. Naomi Kelly at naomikelly58@gmail.com. Those who would like to listen to Dr. Moore's lecture are invited to do so. Please, contact Naomi in advance.

Now Accepting Applicants: Every Day Spirituality

The Academy's latest course offering is "Every Day Spirituality." It is a one day retreat that will be held on Saturday, May 19th, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at St. Margaret’s House Retreat Center, 47 Jordan Road, New Hartford, NY 13413. The cost is $20 per person (includes lunch), and the instructor is the Rev. Karen Caspersen (email address: pastormom@aol.com). Please, submit applications to the course to the Rev. Naomi Kelly at naomikelly58@gmail.com.

The course is designed to help participants discern the type of spiritual paths that work for them. It encourages students to discuss the meaning and purpose of spirituality, determine their own spiritual goals, and discover new ways to achieve those goals. To this end, the participants explore the importance of prayer in various forms, experiment with new styles of prayer, keep a spiritual journal, and learn about and experience new methods and styles of spiritually. Students are encouraged to develop their own personal approach to the life of faith.

Before the class starts, students are to begin a spiritual journal, recording your current type and frequency of spiritual practices for at least 7 days. Assess how satisfied you are with this. Write a brief paragraph detailing your goals for this class. Bring the journal and paper to the retreat. Sharing will be optional. If possible, email the essay to the instructor prior to the class session.

Students are also asked to read one of the following books and be prepared to discuss it in class. In addition write a brief paper, 1 - 2 pages. This is not to be a book report but your reflections about the book. Did it inspire you? Challenge you? Teach you? Frustrate you? Confuse you? Affirm your current prayer practices? Change your original goals in some way?

A Beginner's Guide to Prayer by Richard J. Beckman, Augsburg Fortress, 1994.

Wear comfortable clothing as we might go outside, weather permitting.

The Challenge We Face

Churches in Utica Presbytery, Presbyterian churches generally, and the whole Christian movement in America are in decline. An avalanche of studies conducted by the most reputable religious research centers document a drop in worship attendance, membership, and giving that began—oh so quietly—in the 1960s. In our own Presbyterian Church (USA) only somewhere between one-third and one-fourth of congregations are strong, growing churches. The rest are in various states of decline. Churches that once numbered 400 or 500 members now list 150, 100, or less.

Churches "in decline," however, are still lively faith communities of worship, service, and fellowship. They still carry out vital ministries to their communities and to each other. They still need trained pastoral leadership even when their congregation can’t afford a full-time minister. The challenge facing the Lay Academy of Utica Presbytery is to identify, train, and support lay pastoral leadership. In effect, the academy is called to train something new, a “lay clergy.” The official term is Commissioned Lay Pastor (CLP).

The coming generation of “lay clergy” or CLPs work part-time and receive only modest compensation, if any, for their service. In Utica Presbytery, however, they are already important leaders in our churches and in the presbytery. Six of the presbytery's churches are currently being served by CLPs, and graduates of the Lay Academy provide active leadership in many other churches. The Lay Academy, thus, has the challenge and the opportunity to help lay the groundwork for this important, even exciting "lay clergy" ministry.

If you are an ordained elder in a member church of Utica Presbytery thinking and praying about whether or not you have a call to become a trained CLP, this website is for you—and the Lay Academy may well be for you as well. We invite you to browse the contents of our pages. Look at what is going on in some of the courses. And if you think that the call to lay pastoral ministry is something you want to explore further don’t hesitate to contact either of our co-deans, the Rev. Lawrence Bartell or the Rev. Naomi Kelley.

Where many today despair at “what’s happening to the church,” we see opportunity for new forms of service. Think about it. Pray on it. Maybe, you are being called, too.