Continuing Education Program

A successful combined District Pastors Conference / CEP event (Continuing Education Program for pastors and lay workers) was held from 24 to 26 October under the theme: “Grace in a season of change”. It was lovely to be hosted by Holy Cross Templestowe once again, after a break of about four years (we last held CEP in 2019).

Pastors met on Tuesday afternoon for a condensed District Pastor’s Conference. They were then joined by lay workers on Tuesday evening, and the CEP component on Wednesday and Thursday. In all, fifty-one of us gathered for Worship, education, Compline and (much appreciated) fellowship over food together. We welcomed a number of participants to their first CEP, and many others attended for the umpteenth time!

Guest presenters were Rev Noel Due, who spoke about recognising and addressing changes in the culture in which we minister (“What on earth is God doing, for heaven’s sake?”), and Pastor Matt Thiele, who spoke about ‘Gospel Teamwork’ in the congregational setting.

There was a very good representation of both pastors/SMPs and lay workers in attendance (approximately half-half). This year, lay workers included some Congregational Leaders and Ministry representatives who attended for their first time. Feedback highlighted the value of the content from the speakers in particular as very relevant to their contexts. They also enjoyed the shared worship and meals.

Pastor and SMP feedback showed that most had attended previous CEPs, and highlighted their appreciation particularly for shared meal fellowship, Worship and Compline.

Overall, there was very even support for all the aspects offered at CEP. The only difficulty was managing to engage with it all in the time we had. Certainly, there was a lot of content! It is worth noting that both speakers have made their content available for revisiting, and we also hope to have recordings available soon.