Introduction to the Troth Clergy Program

Note:

This introduction was written by Lars Larsson, several years previously. While this introduction is still good and worthwhile reading, the program has been updated since its writing. In particular, much of the interaction between trainees and other clergy is now conducted via the internet. All clergy trainees are asked to become members of the (private) Troth-Clergy e-mail discussion list which acts as a seminar.

Also, all clergy trainees work with a mentor on an individualised program of study.

For further details of the clergy program please contact the Troth at troth-contact@thetroth.org

Lars Larsson

Introduction

The Troth is a small organization -- tiny, when compared with most religions--and is extremely scattered across the face of North America. For that reason, this training program, at least at this initial point, will appear much like a correspondence course. All of the training supervisors would love to have regular, ongoing, personal contact with candidates for ordination, and perhaps some day this can happen. But for now, we will be in touch with each other mostly through the mails and telephone. A few of us will be able to communicate by e-mail, which will help.

The consequences of this first fact for the candidate are also two-fold:

Regular, clear communication with the training supervisors is essential.

A larger amount of the academic digging has to be done by the candidates themselves. We can help from wherever we are, and we will do so, but we cannot present materials to you with the ease that an instructor in a classroom can.

At some future date (may we live to see it) it may be possible to have a real Heathen seminary with a campus and resident faculty, but for now these are the constraints with which we construct our training program.

The candidates for ordination as Godwo/men can reasonably be expected to have widely varied levels of education and sophistication in the field of counselling and human relations. For this reason, the writing of a unified curriculum, particularly in an area of professional expertise like clergy counselling, is an extremely challenging assignment. In the pages that follow, and in the first drafts of the counselling section of Our Folk (on which I am now working), I find myself trying to write to the level of high school graduates, all the while knowing that some of the concepts I am presenting are handled in other religions by candidates for ordination at the graduate level.

In argument against the above, however, I remind myself that the professional field of clerical counselling, with clinically certified clergypersons, is only half a century old; and that clergy of all religions and denominations had been doing effective counselling of their congregational members for time out of memory before that without so much as even the sketchy materials that I am now writing. Indeed, the present trend toward academic preparation for clerical counselling came about, not as a result of ineffective work done in the past, but as a natural desire on the part of clergy to do even better work!

I also remind myself, as I now state to you, that although the tasks ahead are considerable, you would not have requested candidacy if you were not sincerely motivated to serve the god/esses and true folk; and I know that my colleagues and I are equally motivated to see you succeed!

Looking around me, I see fellow training supervisors with impressive teaching credentials, either from academic work or from life experiences. Know, then, that we have appropriate teachers' attitudes as well. We commit ourselves to coaxing the best out of our students or candidates by upholding high standards, but at the same time we want to let them know of their teacher's support and understanding. We have been where you are. Our goal is to have you stand where we are.

For that reason, it is perhaps appropriate to state: The supervisors of Godwo/man training of the Ring of Troth are delighted to have candidates to train, look forward to your eventual ordination and service, and we have every reason to be supportive of your academic and professional efforts.

Therefore, if you are daunted by this program, cheer up! Yes, it is impressive, but it has been created that way in order to serve our people well. With a little effort, and with willingness to learn and to be taught, you will make it. You are not alone!

I conclude my personal notes with two apologies.

I was asked to undertake supervising this part of the Godwo/man training program because I have some academic and practical experience that applies. Because I love teaching, and because I am enthusiastic about having rediscovered my roots through the Troth and through other heathen organizations and friends, I accepted without reservation. -- But the request came at an unexpected time, just as I was putting my life back together after a series of personal challenges: medical problems only recently resolved, a broken marriage some years before coupled with the joy of finding love again, leaving one career field and attempting to find gainful employment in another.

For these reasons, the first apology is that many of the texts that taught me so much about religious counselling are now out of date. Very few of the titles on the counselling reading list fall into the class of 'You are required to read . . . '; I intend most of the titles to be suggestive, meaning 'You should read this, or its more recent edition, or a comparative work on the same subject matter.' A single asterisk simply indicates that a book is of excellent quality; a double asterisk indicates that a book ought to be considered effectively required reading.

The second apology is that almost all texts are either neutral in religious content or outright Judaeo-Christian. As will be apparent, we are plowing new ground in re-establishing the Heathen tradition in our time. I do not doubt that we will have, a generation from now if not sooner, a significant body of theological work regarding Heathenry as a discrete religion; but for now, we must use foundation stones that have been hewn by other hands. Believe that I am not trying to convert our candidates to Christianity, translate the thought-forms to ideas more useful to us, and use what you can.

Having said that, I observe that we begin our professional clergy course as we begin everything else: with good intentions, with ourselves as we are, and with the tools that we have ready to hand, wishing to make something good out of something small. How Teutonic can you get?