Atlantic School of Theology (AST) will establish a pioneering ecumenical shared ministries training program after receiving a US$2.5-million grant from the Lilly Endowment foundation.
Designed for students preparing for ordained or lay professional ministry, as well as continuing education for existing clergy and lay ministers, the program will be the first formal training program of its kind, AST president the Rev. Heather McCance says. Ecumenical shared ministries refer to Christians from different denominations worshipping together or sharing a program, mission, ministry, clergy, staff and/or building.
“There have been groups that have pulled together bits and pieces, creating a toolbox of resources … but there’s never been a comprehensive formal training program” for ecumenical shared ministries, McCance says.
Previous initiatives have included the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, a mission sponsored by five denominations, including the Anglican diocese of Saskatoon, to develop resources for ecumenical shared ministry with the help of a part-time staff member. The Ecumenical Ministries Task Force comprised of Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Church representatives also developed an Ecumenical Shared Ministries Handbook.
To develop the curriculum for its training program, AST—an ecumenical university formed as a merger between Anglican, United and Roman Catholic schools—will work with other schools and organizations that have knowledge of ecumenical training or ecumenical shared ministries. Partners include the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, St. John’s College in Winnipeg, Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Henry Budd College for Ministry in The Pas, Manitoba, and the Canadian Council of Churches.
AST’s president says the need for formalized training in ecumenical shared ministries reflects both longstanding theological values and growing practical considerations.
“Jesus prayed that we would all be one as he and the Father are one,” McCance says. “There’s a deep theological need for Christians to be unified … But at this juncture, there are lots of places in Canada where there are more church buildings than the number of worshipers in those buildings would necessarily require.”
At the same time, she says, there are fewer full-time paid clergy positions available. “That can be really hard for clergy people who are trying to make a living.”
In this context, McCance says, many communities have seen denominations pooling their resources by holding worship services in the same building, sharing clergy, doing Bible study or children’s and youth ministry together, or collaborating on food banks and other outreach ministry.
“To have the training for people to do this work faithfully and well will allow them to enter into it, I think, better equipped,” McCance says.
“I also think that a formal training program will help people to see that this is a legitimate expression of church. I think too often it’s been seen as a last resort, and it doesn’t need to be that. It can be a real celebration of our unity in Christ when we are able to come together and to do ministry together.”
The AST program will include theological training as well as education on leadership, change management and conflict management, McCance says. The school will use the Lilly grant in multiple phases over five years, starting with hiring staff to develop a curriculum. The first cohorts of students will receive a stipend during beta testing of the program, a phase that will determine what, if any, changes are needed.
To keep the program running after the initial grant is spent, St. John’s College will also raise funds that the Lilly Endowment will match 2.5 to one as part of its matching grant program.
Shared ministries ‘viable and important option’ for churches, scholar says
The Rev. Sandra Beardsall, a retired professor of church history and ecumenics at St. Andrew’s College, praised the launch of the new training program for ecumenical shared ministries. She is a United Church minister who served an Anglican-United congregation in Labrador in the early 1990s and has sat on the board of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
“It’s something I would’ve loved to see much earlier, because it really helps to strengthen the notion of shared ministries as a viable and important option for the churches,” Beardsall says of the training program.
“It will be a wonderful opportunity to learn about each other’s denominations and how to navigate a shared experience of the ministry, because it’s something that rarely comes naturally,” she adds. “It’s something that those of us who weren’t trained to do it just have to learn on the fly. I think it’ll be great if people have already been prepared … to carry out these ministries.”
The history of ecumenical shared ministries in Canada stretches back to the earliest days of European settlement, Beardsall says, with a notable example being the 1925 formation of the United Church as a merger of four Protestant denominations.
It saw significant expansion starting in the 1950s due to population growth and the emergence of new communities built around resource extraction in remote areas, where clergy from all denominations were not always available. United-Anglican shared ministries were most prevalent at first. Later, Lutherans increasingly formed shared ministries with United or Anglican congregations.
Based on her own experience in Labrador, Beardsall finds recurring patterns in ecumenical shared ministries. Often denominations will alternate worship on successive Sundays, such as an Anglican liturgy one week and a United liturgy the next.
Over time, she says, parishioners become familiar with worship and liturgy from other denominations. Typical challenges include what to do with surplus buildings and finding clergy who are able to minister according to different worship traditions.
The AST training program, Beardsall says, “will give so many more opportunities for people to learn about shared ministries, to practice them, to connect with other people who do shared ministry, and to strengthen a cohort of trained practitioners that take shared ministries into all parts of Canadian church life. That’s always just been a dream of mine, so I’m really excited to see it coming to fruition.”
The Rev. Paul Jennings, who served as rector at Trinity Anglican Church and Grace United Church in Digby, N.S. from 2023 until his 2025 retirement, experienced a different form of ecumenical shared ministry. In Digby, the two denominations shared a minister, Jennings, while continuing to worship in separate buildings.
An Anglican priest by background, Jennings took a course on United Church worship to prepare for his ministry in Digby. While the Anglican and United congregations made some progress in expanding their work together—through shared Bible study, joint Holy Week services and a soup kitchen program that also included local Roman Catholics—Jennings wonders if he should have pushed harder to bring the two together.
“Through my time there, I was constantly saying, ‘This is what we need to be looking at as the church, is how we train people for this,’” Jennings says.
Based on that experience, he welcomes the AST training program. “I’m glad they’re taking that initiative,” he says.
The Lilly Endowment, which provided the grant to AST as part of its Pathways to Tomorrow Initiative supporting theological schools, is a private philanthropical foundation created in 1937 by members of the Lilly family through stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. The firm is now the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and in 2025 became the first health-care company to reach a market value of $1 trillion.
