Native Ministries Consortium

The Native Ministries Consortium was formed in 1985 in response to a challenge by Native Christians. NMC called upon the churches to create new and effective ways of developing and equipping Native leaders for both lay and ordained ministry in Native congregations, and has had a very significant role in the establishment of the Native Ministries Master of Divinity Degree offered by extension through Vancouver School of Theology.

Mandate:

• To develop community-based training programs for Native ministries, lay and ordained. The Native Ministries Consortium Summer School is a major aspect of this work;
• To develop an appropriate curriculum for Native people entering the ordained ministry, with particular emphasis on the establishment of an extension or community-based degree program;
• To establish appropriate cross-cultural courses to assist the church as a whole in its ministry with Aboriginal peoples, with particular attention to the infusion of Aboriginal theology into the Christian theological world. This mandate includes the establishment of opportunities for dialogue and discussion between Aboriginal Christians in Canada, and with Aboriginal peoples in other parts of the Pacific Rim;
• To commend to its founding institutions ways in which Native people might gain permanent and significant involvement in the educational decision-making at all levels of the Church and seminary.