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
QLC Quaker Beliefs for Everyone Course with Steve Angell
Time: 7:00 pmThis course is for Friends who want to understand the deep roots of our current practices! Quakerism is not a credal religion, but all varieties of Quakerism are structured around certain doctrines that have roots going back to the religion’s seventeenth century origins. I will lead a consideration of what these doctrines have have been, and how they were understood prior to about 1700.
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Conflict in Meetings/Churches: Workshop Training with Bill Eagles
Time: 12:00 amConflicts within congregations happen. From the Gnostics to the Reformation to the last 30 years, we’ve seen massive Christian disagreements. Quakers have their own history of splits. But the divisive issues within congregation are both large and small. For four sessions, participants will work with one another and with Bill Eagles
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