SEI staff are currently gearing up for the new academic year which opens on Sunday 28 August with a week-long residential at St Mary’s Kinnoull.
Five new students will join the existing cohort, two from the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles, two from Brechin and one from St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane.
These students will be following several different pathways, as candidates variously for Incumbent and Assistant priesthood and the Distinctive Diaconate; one will be training via the Mixed Mode pathway. Sadly there are no new Lay Reader candidates this year to join the two already in the cohort.
Currently three of the candidates in the SEI community hail from island locations: second year ordinand Helen from Shetland, and first year ordinands Anne from Lewis and Robert from Cumbrae.
During Orientation Week the students will be accompanied by the Rt Revd Dr Keith Riglin, Bishop of Argyll and The Isles. As Bishop-in-Residence, Bishop Keith will preside at a midweek Eucharist and lead a Bible Study. Another highlight of the week will be an outing to Southton Smallholding at the Bield, Blackruthven, where students will learn about the work of this social enterprise. Deborah Munday, Provincial President of the Mothers’ Union, will also speak on one evening about the work the movement is currently doing in the field of gender-based violence and domestic abuse.
SEI students and staff very much value the prayers of the Church not only during Orientation Week but throughout the year. If you would like to pray for the work of the Institute, then why not use the SEI Prayer Cycle from the start of the new academic year, available here?
