St Hild’s unique tracks – in Church Planting and Mission on the Margins – have been developed to give students with a passion for either subject, the tools and skills to fiully engage in these vital expressions of 21st century Church.
St Hild Specialist Tracks provide the opportunity to:
- Work towards the skills and wisdom to innovate, teach or write in your chosen field
- Join a community of people working in a similar context
- Receive mentoring and encouragement appropriate to your stage of ministry
- Achieve a Graduate Diploma, postgraduate award or MA, or complete a personalised programme of informal study
What are the different specialisms or tracks?
Church Planting
(This is already done. Copy it and change it for the others. Mission on the Margins can just have the St Hild logo to replace the centre button)
Mission on the Margins
St Hild Centre for Christian Spirituality
The St Hild Centre for Christian Spirituality offers opportunities to further your study of the Christian spiritual traditions. A range of modules is available each year, which may be taken either as freestanding courses or as part of a pathway towards a Durham University award. Find out more about the St Hild Centre for Christian Spirituality.
Church Planting
Our Mission on the Margins Track aims to support people working in marginal urban, rural or pioneering settings.
Partnering with Urban Life, and linked to a wider network of practitioners, it focuses on the skills to cultivate transformative community-based ministry for the long term. Track participants are expected to be involved in leading or supporting local mission, and all modules are tailored to enable effective reflection in that context.
Our Church Planting Track is designed to resource a new generation of church planting leaders. Led by Christian Selvaratnam, our Director of Church Planting and Revitalisation, it enables in-context learning in areas such as contextual awareness, planting and sending, team leadership and missional spirituality. Track participants are expected to be involved in church planting and all modules are tailored to develop more effective ministry in their local context.
The UK Church has a long history of mission and church planting and we are seeing a renewed energy and excitement about church planting. The Baptist, Methodist and Anglican churches in the North of England have pledged to plant upward of 1,000 in the next decade and we are looking to play our part to train the people who will lead these plants and join the teams. This track aims to invest in the training church planters of the future.
Visit Centre Landing Page
Visit the centre landing page for more information about our wider involvement in supporting church planting in the region
More details of the Church Planting track are available here.
For more information:
Mission on the Margins
Are you engaged in mission with, or feel that God may be calling you to work in, marginalised communities? Are you wondering what it means to discover God in low-income neighbourhoods, prisons, social justice initiatives, among the homeless community or a myriad of other seemingly forgotten groups?
We know that God is found ‘in the margins’. While the energy of marginalised communities is often vibrant, ministering in these areas can be very challenging. Even those who already have training and skills in ministry may not be equipped to engage well in these contexts. This track aims to provide the skills needed for those ministering in marginalised communities – to be a church that is present in places that have often been left behind.
In developing and delivering the Mission on the Margins Track St Hild has collaborated with Urban Life – a team of theological accompaniers who journey alongside individuals, groups, collectives, teams and churches to stimulate reflection on mission practice in marginal contexts. We hope this collaboration will resource practitioners to help them make sense of what’s happening in the communities in which they are serving today – as well as equip them for long-term engagement.
St Hild’s unique practitioner tracks – in Mission on the Margins and Church Planting – have been developed to give students with a passion for either subject, the tools and skills to fully engage in these vital expressions of 21st century Church.
What is the student experience like?
Each student on the Mission on the Margins Track benefits from an individually tailored experience to ensure that the learning is appropriate for them and their context. This creates a challenging and relevant process of accompaniment, peer learning, and academic work at the appropriate level.
Students on the track have access to:
1. A tailored academic pathway
- Dedicated modules and a pathway designed to relate to mission on the margins, whether accredited or non-accredited
2. A peer learning network
- A wider cohort of learners
- An annual Practitioner Morning (online) sharing learning with current and former students
- Additional opportunities to connect with the work of Urban Life including Experiments in Mission, More Questions than Answers and Faithful Improvisation
3. Individual tutoring
- An accompanied learning process with Andrew Grinnell, designated track lead
- Support in finding a public voice through opportunities for publication, wider sharing of learning and development as an expert practitioner
The Mission on the Margins Track offers a flexibility and gives scope for a narrower or broader focus, including modules from our Church Planting Track. You’ll have the opportunity to talk through the modules during the interview process and these will be confirmed with an individual study pathway. St Hild modules include midweek, evening and weekend study at Mirfield and Sheffield as well as fully digital modules.
How does the track fit in with my programme of study?
Participation in one of the practitioner tracks is available to all St Hild students – there is no additional charge to be on the track. Participation in the track can be combined with graduate and post-graduate level study, or as part of an informal learning pathway arranged with one of our tutors.
Whatever your entry point, it’s our aim to inspire you, equip you and stretch you, and throughout you’ll be engaging with practitioner- academics.
Creative in-context assessment
All course assignments can be undertaken with your church planting focus in mind. The Mission on the Margins Track will also use creative forms of assessment, including:
- Personal learning journals
- Context-based reports
- Oral presentations
- Practical skills assessments
- Groundwork for work intended for a public context, including training materials, rationales for funding bids, and articles.
Accredited work leads up to a dissertation or learning project focussed particularly on your chosen planting context, so that academic work learns from, and benefits, local ministry.
Module options
The Mission on the Margins Track offers a flexibility and gives scope for a narrower or broader focus, including modules from our Church Planting Track. You’ll have the opportunity to talk through the modules during the interview process and these will be confirmed with an individual study pathway. St Hild modules include midweek, evening and weekend study at Mirfield and Sheffield as well as fully digital modules.
Open days
Key Dates for 2024/25
- Practitioner Morning Saturday 15 March 2025 (10am – 1.30pm Online)
Mission on the Margins Evenings:
- 24th September 2024 (7.45 – 9.15pm Online)
- 28th January 2025 (7.45 – 9.15pm Online)
- 20th May 2025 (7.45 – 9.15pm Online)
For more information:
Core Mission on the margins modules
Credits
Level
Specialisms
Module Leader:
St Hild Centre for Christian Spirituality
The St Hild Centre for Christian Spirituality offers opportunities to further your study of the Christian spiritual traditions. A range of modules is available each year, which may be taken either as freestanding courses or as part of a pathway towards a Durham University award.
In 2025-6, in addition to our existing undergraduate ‘Introduction to Spirituality and Discipleship’, we are offering
- ‘Texts and Traditions in Christian Spirituality’: in the autumn term of 2025, we’ll explore a range of spiritual traditions including biblical, Baptist, Catholic, Black British, Franciscan, and Carmelite interfaith approaches.
- Julian of Norwich: an intensive study of Julian, her background, theology, and influence over 10 weeks in the summer term of 2026, including an optional retreat weekend at Cliffe College May 16/17.
These new modules open the door to full postgraduate awards (PG Cert, PG Diploma or MA) largely or completely devoted to the study of Spirituality.
Sample Postgraduate Certificate over one year:
Now that our OfS registration will make student finance available to fund postgraduate awards for eligible students, this might be a great time to revisit your ambition for further study!
Alongside these academic studies, we’ll be offering a retreat or quiet day every term, online or in person, and a monthly evening reflection group for those of you who would appreciate a more regular spirituality check-in, in company with St Hild friends old and new.
Visit Centre Landing Page
Visit Centre Landing Page
Visit the centre landing page for more information about our wider involvement in supporting church planting in the region
More details coming soon