The Church Times, a London-based Anglican newspaper, recently published an article about the apparent financial crisis facing Anglican theological education in the United Kingdom.

As quoted in the article:

Just as the Church of England seeks to expand the number of ordinands by 50 per cent, the leaders of the theological education institutions (TEIs) have told this paper that the training process is “totally underfunded,” “starved of funds,” and “quite likely to collapse.”

The paper interviewed a number of institutional leaders about their funding issues and the perceived competition among schools for resources. Yet many of the leaders also emphasized their enthusiasm and optimism about the quality of clergy being trained.

The issues facing these U.K. schools are different than those faced here by North American seminaries; the governance of the Church of England and British cultural realities make their struggles unique. Nevertheless, concerns expressed in the article reflect some of the financial and institutional struggles that schools in the United States and Canada are also facing, such as decreased seminary enrollment and church attendance.

To learn more, read the full text: “’Underfunded’ theological training facing ‘collapse’.”