Berkeley at Yale welcomes applications for new Virtual Curacy

Thursday, April 17, 2025

The season of change and uncertainty before us poses an extraordinary challenge to the clergy who have been called to lead and love God’s people. Berkeley’s Transforming Leaders program is on the front edge of providing critical support and ongoing formation for those clergy. The leaders who have participated from my diocese are leading some of our most vital and important ministries, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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The Rt. Rev’d Craig Loya, Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota

Transforming Leaders, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale

Berkeley Divinity School at Yale’s Transforming Leaders has launched its latest program: the Virtual Curacy. The two-year Virtual Curacy envisions what clergy formation can and must entail in the 21st century as fewer traditional curacy opportunities are available to newly ordained priests. Applications for the first cohort are now open.

The Virtual Curacy will join The Leader’s Way podcast, The Leader’s Way certificate program, and online courses and workshops in Transforming Leaders’ expanding suite of learning opportunities reaching beyond seminary education.

We have spent a year asking bishops, canons, alums, priests, curates, and educators about newly ordained priests’ pressing needs as the church landscape continues to shift. We are proud of the resulting Virtual Curacy and encouraged that dioceses have described the final product as something that addresses their needs.

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Dr. Hannah Black, Assistant Director of Leadership and Communications

Berkeley Divinity School at Yale is committed to forming compassionate servant-leaders for the Church and the world who are generous, wise, and equipped to lead in new ways in a rapidly changing world. The Virtual Curacy, a hallmark of this commitment, is a two-year program that provides newly ordained priests—from any seminary or local formation program—with substantial mentoring, fellowship, and practical learning. The innovative curriculum is tailored for those who find themselves as priests in charge immediately after ordination due to the dearth of traditional curacies.

Berkeley seeks to partner with dioceses across The Episcopal Church to ensure that new clergy receive the necessary support and training they need in a period of ministry one alum called “fourth trimester” after seminary.

Virtual Curacy

In addition to weekly one-on-one mentoring, the Virtual Curacy curriculum includes:

  • Spiritual Formation for Church Leaders (Opening Retreat): Curates begin the program by gathering for a retreat in August at an Episcopal Camps and Conferences location (2025: Cathedral Ridge, Colorado). The Virtual Curacy facilitator leads the group through the first module, which includes “exploring the identity and spirituality of a parish priest,” “creating rhythms of prayer to cultivate wellness and avoid burnout,” and more.
  • Exegeting the Book of Common Prayer to Lead Worship: Virtual Curates in their first year spend the fall focusing on how to leading corporate worship, guided by the BCP. This module covers special liturgies, baptism, naming ceremonies, Eucharistic prayers, funerals, weddings, and more.
  • Pastoral Leadership: In the spring, first and second year curates learn together. In even years, curates gain the apprenticeship-type knowledge and skills most often associated with a curacy. New clergy bring their hands-on experience of their new calls as priests to the Virtual Curacy, where they learn about the daily, weekly, and seasonal aspects of pastoral ministry, including selecting music for worship, weekly sermon preparation, trauma-informed preaching outside of the pulpit, pastoral leadership and politics, and more.
  • Visionary Leadership: In the fall of their second year, curates develop their capacity for visionary, adaptive leadership. They learn about conflict resolution and leading through change, giving them starting places for these vital skills. They are also prepared to navigate future challenges by transcending short-term thinking, employing adaptive leadership, and imagining fresh possibilities.
  • Church Management: In the spring, first and second year curates learn together. Curates develop competencies in managing church resources to ensure smooth and efficient operations within their ministries. Participants learn about collaborating with laity, managing church finances, fundraising, thinking about church real estate in the 21st century, and more.
  • Closing Retreat: In the June of the curates’ second year, they will gather at Yale to worship together, celebrate, and receive their Yale certificates.

Each month, the curate will have 4 hours of mentoring and 2 hours of synchronous meeting time. Curates meet online with their assigned mentor weekly for the two years of the program. They also gather online once per month for two hours of learning in a cohort setting. At each monthly gathering, the Virtual Curacy facilitator shows clips from the Virtual Curacy content library of leaders sharing their expertise on the topic of the month. Then, the facilitator leads a discussion in which curates are encouraged to work through instances in their own ministry related to that topic.

Newly ordained and soon-to-be ordained priests from any Episcopal diocese are eligible to apply to the program with diocesan approval. Decisions will be communicated within a month of applying. Tuition is $18,000 for the two-year program, which includes the opening and closing retreats. A sliding scale of tuition is available to dioceses based on their ability to pay tuition costs. Once a curate is accepted into the program, Berkeley Divinity will liaise with that curate’s diocese directly to sort out financial aid and tuition details.

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