“It was a chance for many of us to begin a dialogue and an understanding of what ‘total ministry’ is all about,” said the Rev. Alan Mead of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania and NNECA’s president.

This year’s theme, he noted, drew an unusually high number of members -- who generally are seminary-trained, professional clergy -- to learn about a program that encourages local identification, training and ordination of largely volunteer clergy.
Nevada was selected to host the meeting because of that diocese’s long involvement with helping its members live into their baptismal covenant, Mead added.

Nevada’s program, like that of other dioceses that have embraced the concept, includes selection and in-diocese training for local clergy.  “It’s the challenge of strengthening the ministry of all the baptized,” said the Rev. Kay Rohde of Boulder City, Nev. “We have to be able to look at ourselves, and at others, and to adopt things from others.  “And we need to ask, does it take a priest do these things: evangelism, administration, youth work?”

She also suggested that, to promote understanding of the principles, “Maybe Nevada should consider giving up the term ‘total ministry’ and move to something more understood, such as ‘ministry of all the baptized.’”

Rohde and other speakers noted that Nevada was both reviewing and increasing its educational requirements for those being ordained locally. Nevada’s diocesan bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, also requires continuing education for clergy.

Schori told attendees that total ministry is not a ministry model, but an ecclesiology. “[It’s]  how we see ourselves as the body of Christ,” she said.

“We need ministry developers, equippers and collaborators to equip and serve people in their daily ministries.  We need leaders who are energized in ministry every day, and bump boundaries.”

“This is inspiring," observed the Rev. Peggy Tuttle of the Diocese of Minnesota, "and a challenge to the rest of us to help develop the ministry of all Christians, not just the ordained."

Dean Anthony Clavier of Paris, dean of the European Institute of Christian Studies, Convocation of American (Episcopal) Churches in Europe, said he could see situations in Europe where indigenous congregations without capacity to pay clergy could employ principles of total ministry. 

 “I was under the impression that total ministry was losing impetus, but now I have a new understanding,” he said.