Community resources
As a Quaker institution, ESR seeks to serve as a Quaker resource to the world. Below, find information on some of the initiatives and resources we provide to students, faculty, alumni, and members of our wider communities, including faculty speakers, grant-funded initiatives, and Quaker resources for ministry and leadership.
Economic Challenges Facing Future Ministers (ECFFM)
A grant-funded initiative through Lilly Endowment
This initiative encouraged seminaries to address and develop strategies to prepare ministers-in-the-making for the financial realities they would likely encounter upon graduation.
The economic issue is not a simple one. The myth surrounding ministry is that those who embrace it have less concern for earthly riches. This is often true but unfortunately translates into church attitudes and practices that lead to unreasonable compensation of ministers. And, congregations have their own financial struggles as membership ages and declines, often leading to a strained budget for the congregation. Add to that the rising costs of education and the lingering effect of educational debt to the usual costs of living and raising a family, ministers can be headed for a lifetime of financial struggle with its ripple effects on one’s entire life.
These issues are further complicated by the changing role of religion in society, and the implications this has for organized religion. For a seminary, these changes have a direct impact on thinking about preparation for ministry. These changes bear on how ministry is offered and where it occurs. Friends have always embraced the concept of universal ministry in which any service or profession to which God has called an individual is rightly considered ministry. Ministry is not confined to the pulpit.
Quaker resources for ministry and leadership
Our commitment to spiritual and intellectual growth extends beyond the classroom and campus. The following organizations share our commitment or work in partnership with us to develop leaders and ministers who are grounded in Friends principles.
- Baltimore Yearly Meeting
- Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region
- Illinois Yearly Meeting
- Indiana Yearly Meeting
- Intermountain Yearly Meeting
- Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative)
- Iowa Yearly Meeting (FUM)
- Lake Erie Yearly Meeting
- New Association of Friends
- New England Yearly Meeting
- New York Yearly Meeting
- North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative)
- North Pacific Yearly Meeting
- Northwest Yearly Meeting
- Northern Yearly Meeting
- Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting
- Ohio Yearly Meeting
- Pacific Yearly Meeting
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
- Piedmont Friends Fellowship
- Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association
- South Central Yearly Meeting
- South Eastern Yearly Meeting
- Western Yearly Meeting
ESR resources
- Digital Quaker Collection
- Quaker Career Center
- ESR Leadership Website
- Quaker Information Center
- The Heart
General resources
Lauramoore House
Lauramoore House is available to ESR and Bethany prospective students, guest speakers at the seminaries and the College, students taking Intensive and weekend classes, ESR Board of Advisors and Earlham/Bethany Board of Trustees.
Learn more about Lauramoore HouseHappening on campus
The Pros & Cons of Seminary Panel
Time: 7:30 pmPanel: The Pros and Cons of Seminary ~ Is seminary worth it? What happens afterward?
Join us for a panel on The Pros and Cons of Seminary! December 9 from 7:30-8:30pm ET on Zoom.
Our panelists will share about their experiences in seminary, the effects that has had on their lives and careers, things they wish they had known, and advice for prospective students. There will be time for Q&A, so bring your questions!
Register here: www.publicfriends.org/events/p/panel-the-pros-and-cons-of-seminary
THE PANEL
C. Wess Daniels is the William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies at Guilford College. He is a recorded Quaker minister committed to liberation theology, anti-imperial expressions of Christianity, and working towards the revitalization of faith traditions that embody love and justice in the world. He is the author of A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing The Quaker Tradition in Participatory Culture (2015), Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation (2019), contributor to We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People’s Campaign (2021), and the co-editor with Rhiannon Grant of the Quaker World (2022).
Rachel Guaraldi is a member of Beacon Hill Friends Meeting and lives in Strafford, Vermont where she works part time as a community chaplain and pastor of the United Church of Strafford. Rachel is a ESR graduate and a board certified interfaith chaplain with experience working in hospitals, community care settings, and hospice.
Christina Repoley received her MDiV in 2011 from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. Immediately following seminary, she founded Quaker Voluntary Service and served as its Executive Director until 2018, when she transitioned to the Forum for Theological Exploration, where she is currently the Vice President of Program. Christina is a recorded minister.
This event is brought to you by Public Friends and the Quaker Leadership Center.
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