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.
Kindred Spirits
Winter 2023 Newsletter
23103_KindredSpirits_V2_N2-1Traveling Ministries
Our Traveling Ministries program shares the spiritual and intellectual gifts of the school’s faculty with the wider community by offering faculty speakers to interested organizations for mutually beneficial learning opportunities. By traveling in this ministry, we extend the boundaries of the spiritual and educational experience available on campus at ESR.
Subjects include Bible Studies, Quaker Faith and Practice, Meeting/Church Management, Christian Spirituality and Religious Education. These workshops and presentations are not just contributions of the speakers as individuals; they are also a gift freely given by ESR as we seek to nurture society and share some part of ESR’s Quaker vitality.
Your organization should first determine the:
- Date, time and duration for the speaking engagement
- Purpose for the workshop
- Audience and audience expectation
After you contact ESR with details of the engagement, we will seek to match faculty interest and availability to your needs.
Any organization interested in topics available through ESR’s Traveling Ministries program. We expect interest in our offerings particularly among Friends meetings and churches, schools and universities, retirement communities and other Quaker and religious organizations.
There is no charge for this service as ESR seeks to offer it as a ministry of outreach from the school to the wider body of Friends and the community. Should an honorarium be offered to the speaker, it would be a gift to that individual.
We ask a minimum of four weeks in order to allow time for discernment of speaker and confirmation of arrangements. The earlier you make your request, the better the opportunity to have a well-planned event.
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
Quaker Leadership Conference
Time: 12:00 amREGISTER ON EVENTBRITE All Friends and ESR alums – YOU are invited. Our focus will be on hearing and telling stories that are FOR the future. If you are committed…
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Quaker Trustee Series: Rentals
Time: 1:00 pmWhat does right relationship mean when we have tenants? To whom do we rent, and why? How do we create rental policies? How do we work with tenants that miss…
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Quaker Trustee Series: Investments
Time: 1:00 pmWhen it comes to investing money, what are our options? How do we assess possibilities with an eye to financial return, stability, and God’s purposes and leadings?
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