Peer learning sustains clergy.
Thriving in Ministry at VTS Peer Learning Communities provide participants with ways to deeply understand themselves and how others perceive them they learn, adapt, and change. Participants share experiences and wisdom, with trained Thriving mentors offering insights. (PHOTO members of the Public Missioners Peer Learning Community in 2022)
Thriving in Ministry at VTS Peer Learning Community Member Profile
The Rev. Jenni Ovenstone Smith is in her first year as rector at Grace Church in Haddonfield. Having served during her first sixteen years of ordained ministry in larger, multi-staff parishes, this is Jenni’s first call as rector and in a solo-clergy setting. Grace Church is a transitional-size congregation in the Diocese of New Jersey that, in its history, has taken significant steps and risks to be a welcoming and inclusive community. As spiritual leader, Jenni is eager to challenge, encourage, and discern with the congregation, in this new chapter and changing times, what this spirit of risk and welcome looks like for Grace’s call in the world today.
“In my new solo-clergy setting, my Thriving in Ministry peer group is one of the key ways I continue to build the collaborative and collegial clergy relationships for reflection and learning that have become a core part of who I am as a priest. The women in the group – all dynamic leaders, seeking to grow, and serving in a variety of roles and regions – challenge and inspire me in ways that keep me focused on the larger picture of the church’s work in the world, even as I strengthen my own gifts for leadership in that work.”
“In my new solo-clergy setting, my Thriving in Ministry peer group is one of the key ways I continue to build the collaborative and collegial clergy relationships for reflection and learning that have become a core part of who I am as a priest. The women in the group – all dynamic leaders, seeking to grow, and serving in a variety of roles and regions – challenge and inspire me in ways that keep me focused on the larger picture of the church’s work in the world, even as I strengthen my own gifts for leadership in that work.”