Lay Preaching College 2019
Information and Registration
Friday, May 11 through Saturday, May 12
Bellwether Farm.

Preaching the Word of God to an assembled congregation is an honor that carries with it significant responsibility. National canons offer lay persons the opportunity to be licensed to preach in a church in The Episcopal Church.

This does not mean that a license is needed for lay people to offer a reflection, testimony, stewardship talk, or the like. It means that to preach the lections of the week and their application to our lives, a lay person must hold a valid license through the Bishop of their diocese. A Lay Preaching license affords the opportunity to preach in your home parish in support of its life and ministry. It is not valid in parishes other than your own. 

If you are interested in finding out more about this, please spend some time with the attached documents. You will also need the recommendation of your parish's regular priest or, if you don't have a regular priest, its Senior Warden.

For additional information, please click on the following links: Lay Preaching Overview and FAQ, Checklists for the Process , and Overview for Mentors .

To register for the College, please complete the following forms: Online Registration Form , and Online Application for Lay Preaching College . There is a text you will need to buy in advance called From Pew to Pulpit . There is also some pre-work to be done in advance of attending the College. You can find a copy of it here .

This College is only offered once per year, so the next opportunity will be in the spring of 2020. Also, please know that attending the college does not guarantee a person will receive a license. There is much more about that in the linked documents. This year's faculty will be Kate Gillooly of St. Luke's/Cleveland, Lindsay Graves of Christ Church/Oberlin, and The Rev. Mike Floyd of Christ Church/Huron.

I'm happy to answer any questions or otherwise help if possible.

The Rev. Brad Purdom
Canon for Congregations
The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio