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St. Alcuin House Seminary

Affiliation/Ordination

Order of St. Alcuin

The Night's Watch

Home

St. Alcuin House Seminary

Affiliation/Ordination

Order of St. Alcuin

The Night's Watch

Home

St. Alcuin House Seminary

Affiliation/Ordination

Order of St. Alcuin

The Night's Watch

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Bishop John L. Simons

Communion Of Anglican Churches International
(772) 834-5887

cacianglican@gmail.com

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AN EXPLANATION OF THE PROCESS OF TUTORIAL STUDY

When Christianity first reached England, postulants, people who wanted to be ordained to the priesthood, resided in the house of the bishop under who they thought they would later serve as a deacon or priest. And that did not markedly change until cathedral schools were invented and one, at York, developed such a reputation for producing scholarly priests and monks that Charlemagne persuaded its master, Alcuin, to come to Aachen and recreate his school in York for the education of people in his empire. St. Alcuin's system of education involved the classical world's seven liberal arts together with Christian theology. It laid the foundation for the later development of university education.

The old system favored by Oxford and Cambridge presumed that the matriculating student ought to study under the direction of a major professor who would be assisted by others. Instead of a series of required lecture courses, students would be expected to read works in various fields and write papers discussing what they had learned – papers which would then be critiqued by their professors who might require the student to read more widely.

St. Alcuin House has attempted, rather successfully, to employ the tutorial system of Oxford and Cambridge together with the provision of on-line lectures created by other institutions of higher learning. That means that a student is introduced to a specific teacher-guide who will lay out a course of study which involves reading widely in several fields and writing essays indicative of understanding both the subject matter and the relationship of that academic knowledge to the student's prayer life and inner religious development. These subjects will generally include: Church history, Bible study, theology, liturgics, social sciences, psychology, and basic policies requiring record keeping and administration. This is, admittedly, a highly individualistic approach but it proceeds from the premise that ministry is a one-on-one process and involves visiting the sick, the lonely, and the dying as well as preaching the Gospel to multitudes. St. Alcuin House provides a model for preparing people for the reality of ministry.