20th Annual Summer Preaching Institute
Enrollment Still Open-Register Today!
Aquinas Institute of Theology will offer its 20th annual Summer Preaching Institute from June 15 to June 27, 2008. The two-week session offers preachers academic and practical courses on preaching, more than 25 workshops specific to preaching situations, and opportunities to preach among other supportive and accomplished preachers.
Whether you are a Roman Catholic priest, retreat preacher, Protestant minister, or deacon, the 2008 Summer Preaching Institute will give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to preach powerfully. Programs are designed to accommodate both beginning and experienced preachers.
Each of the two weeks includes a morning session devoted to a specific preaching topic. In the afternoons, students choose from a variety of small group modules according to their interests. Some afternoon sessions are devoted to small group preaching labs in which participants preach and offer constructive feedback to their peers. Students are encouraged to request a digital video copy of their preaching.
Morning Session Week One
Spirituality of the Preacher
Gregory Heille, O.P., D.Min.June 16-20, 9-11:30 a.m. 1 credit
Using some texts that have inspired me most, we will explore a vocational, liturgical, scriptural, prophetic, and communal spirituality of preaching. Texts that I have in mind include: Anna Carter Florence's Preaching as Testimony, Edward Farley's Practicing Gospel: Unconventional Thoughts on the Churchs Ministry, Gordon Lathrop's The Pastor: A Spirituality, Fulfilled in Your Hearing by the U.S. Bishops, Marilynne Robinson's must-read novel Gilead, Barbara Brown Taylor's When God Is Silent, Walter Brueggemann's The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word, Richard Lisher's The Preacher King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Word That Moved America, and Helen Rand Parish's edition of Bartolome's de las Casas's The Only Way.
Note: Preaching Institute participants are expected to attend an orientation at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 15.
Gregory Heille, O.P.,
D.Min., is Professor of Homiletics
and Academic Dean at Aquinas Institute of Theology. With priests and ministers
in his doctoral Theology of Preaching class, he has written Theology of
Preaching: Essays on Vision and Mission in the Pulpit (Melisende, 2001).
Research interests include the relationship of preaching to theology, culture,
and healing. He is a devoted hiker of the American west.
Morning Session Week Two
Preaching and History
Darleen Pryds, Ph.D.
June 22-26, 9-11:30 a.m.| 1 credit
This course is an introductory journey through the history of preaching, exploring representative homilies, sermons, and preaching events and the people who preached them from the patristic, medieval, reformation, and modern eras to the present. Class lecture and discussion will emphasize the interrelationship between society and preaching in each period of history.
Note: This course begins with a two-hour session at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 22. The remaining courses meet over four weekday mornings. Although there is no lecture Friday morning, there are workshop sessions. The institute continues through Friday noon, June 27. Students should not plan to leave before noon.
Darleen Pryds, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality and
Church History at the Franciscan School of Theology (a member of the Graduate
Theological Union) in Berkeley. She has written books and articles on the
history of lay preaching, including The King Embodies the Word: Robert
d'Anjou and the Politics of Preaching (Brill, 2000). Her other research
interests include the history of lay spiritual practices and mysticism as well
as research on lay Franciscans and Dominicans. In her spare time she plays
competitive tennis and takes long walks with her dog, Gracie.
Afternoon Workshops and Preaching
Three afternoons a week, preaching institute students attend two 75-minute workshops. On the other afternoons students participate in preach labs. We offer over 25 individual workshops. The current lineup includes modules sessions such as:< br/>
- Preaching the Hebrew
Scriptures
Preachers often center their words on the Gospel reading. Lectionary editors usually choose a selection from the Hebrew Scriptures. We'll look at the first reading from the coming Sunday and explore its consequences for preaching. - Internal Authority for
Preaching
Preaching is informed by external and internal authority. How can our internal authority be in conversation and balance with various expressions of external authority? - Preaching Social Issues
We all know its importance, but how do we do it, and how can we justify it in the passages from which we preach without manipulating the message? Establish guidelines and practice them with the upcoming Sunday readings. - Choosing a
Form/Structure for the Preaching
Look at several ways to organize thoughts to prepare to preach. This workshop runs 2-and-a-half hours.
A complete list of afternoon workshops will be available after January 1, 2008
Regular Staff
In addition to the morning presenters, three seasoned professionals serve on the Aquinas Summer Preaching Institute staff. Each brings years of educational and ministerial experience to the field of homiletics. Regular Staff are:
Daniel E. Harris, C.M., D.Min is the director of the Aquinas Summer Preaching Institute. He has taught homiletics for over 30 years. A past president of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, he has also presented numerous preaching workshops in the United States as well as in Rome, Dublin, and American Samoa. Dan joined the faculty at Aquinas Institute in 2004. In addition to the Summer Institute and teaching preaching courses at Aquinas, he is a member of the faculty for the Doctor of Ministry Program. Each Sunday he preaches and presides at Eucharist with the community at Sacred Heart Parish in Valley Park, Missouri.
Rev. Martha Brunell, D.Min is adjunct faculty at both Aquinas Institute and Eden Theological Seminary, where she is also the Director of Continuing Education. She has been on staff with the Aquinas Summer Preaching Institute since 2001. She has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ for 30 years and has served for 17 of those years as the pastor of Friedens United Church of Christ, a tiny urban church with a large outreach program in a very challenged and challenging neighborhood. Her ministry portfolio also includes extensive experience in hospice care and in domestic violence.
Jude Siciliano, O.P. has been a preacher since his ordination in 1969.
For fourteen years he taught Homiletics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
Ca. and is past president of the Catholic Association of Teachers of
Homiletics. He preaches parish retreats, as well as retreats
for priests, religious, deacons and laity. He also travels throughout the
country giving preaching workshops to ordained and lay preachers and writes
weekly email reflections on the Sunday scriptures for preachers and laity
interested in preparing for Sunday worship.
Cost
Preaching courses will be $425 each or $1,275 for both weeks of courses and workshops.
Housing will be available at $60 per night (includes parking). Meal plans will be available.
Applying
The application deadline for the Summer Preaching Institute is May 1, 2008.
To apply, call Aquinas Admissions at 314.256.8806 or 800.977.3869,
or click here for an application to complete and mail in now.
Aquinas Institute also offers the nation's only Catholic Doctor of Ministry in Preaching degree.
