Independent Sacramental Education – At What Price?

Initially I was excited tonight as I was looking at the Extraordinary Catholics website.  For those of you who do not know, Extraordinary Catholics is a website full of resources devoted to Inclusive (Independent) Catholicism.  I religiously explore their magazine when it is published and previously purchased many of the books from different conferences they hosted.

Imagine my surprise when I was looking at their website and I saw a tab labeled Consortium.  I do not know how long this tab was present as I typically just go directly to the magazine.  I clicked on the Consortium tab and was pleased to see: “The Independent Inclusive Consortium (ICC) is a group dedicated to growing and promoting catholic, theological, liturgical, and continuing education for the Independent Sacramental Movement and various jurisdictions. It seeks to produce symposiums, study papers, seminars, courses, conferences, and much more.”  This seems to be what so many of us have been saying.  We want greater formation programs available for the Independent Sacramental Movement.  This appears to mark the box of having different jurisdictions coming together and supporting education, learning and formation.  This is perfect!

As I started reading a bit closer, I noticed something that made me uncomfortable.  Right now, there is an application for Institutional Members of the Independent Inclusive Consortium. This application is for ISM’s academic institutions to join “the independent inclusive consortium of seminaries, schools of ministry, and formation/continuing education programs.”  The application asks for areas the academic institution would assist with such as hosting symposia, workshops, open-sourced libraries, publishing, qualified teachers and so on.  Again, this seems perfectly reasonable as institutions have different resources that can be shared to improve education and formation for all jurisdictions.

Sadly, the application includes this line: “There is a suggested institutional startup fee of $100 (subject to change without notice and negotiated on a case by-case basis). Note: Sustaining and membership fees will be determined on an annual basis.”  So they are expecting institutions to pay for the costs of making education and formation available?  Why would an institution sign up for this when there is no guaranteed increase in enrollment and the fees could change at any time? 

I firmly believe in formation and theological education; I have a few ideas that I hope to implement in the near future in conjunction with a couple of jurisdictions.  I can assure you that there will be no uncertain fees.  Rarely are ISM clergy and jurisdictions blessed with extra resources.  We need people who can provide quality formation and education following the example of Christ and the apostles who freely gave without counting the cost.  Reasonable expenses should be paid by those who can afford them, but having institutions agree to payment terms that can be changed without notice seems immoral.  I believe this kind of behavior is problematic and makes the movement suspect.  We need to be transparent in our actions particularly when money is at stake. 

In short, I firmly support all efforts at working together to provide formation, education, and development.  I am suspect when indeterminate financial commitments are part of the program.  I will freely create a page or pages on this website for formation programs so people can see what is available or connect with one another.  I pay for this site out of my own pocket without asking for funds or without advertising.  Why?  I believe in what I say and I believe it is worth doing right.  I previously criticized resources in the ISM movement that did not deliver value on this blog.  For those who are sitting on the fence, I would recommend waiting to see if the Consortium can deliver a value to institutions.  I have hope that something better may be in the works.

Peace,

Ben