Catherine of Siena Virtual College

Empowering Women in Faith and Ministry

We are at present building up courses for a full-fledged internet University College. It will offer students the ability to follow courses on topics related to women and women's ministries that are not available in their local university.

Staff

We are recruiting [virtual] staff. Please, contact us if you have a course to submit for consideration or if you wish to recommend someone else who has. Prof. Mary Grey MA SThB PhD is- Dean of Studies and lecturer. Information & short cv. Doreen Wyatt CSOE MTh is Administrator.	Doreen Wyatt Administrator

Some Sample Courses that will be offered

1. Patricia Pinsent, Female Ministry, Priesthood and Children’s Literature

Inevitably, since women have not been admitted to the ordained ministry in any Christian church until relatively recently, and are still denied ordination in some bodies, especially the Roman Catholic Church, it is not possible to find literature, for children or for adults, which portrays women in this kind of role. Nevertheless, if the role of the priest is seen as making Christ present in the world, mediating God to others and ‘standing for’ Christ, by actions such as nurturing, teaching scripture, tradition and the Christian life, then female characters in literature have undoubtedly had a priestly and ministerial role. In this course, a wide range of literature, either written for children or often presented to them in school, will be examined, both to examine the portrayal of the role of the ordained male priests and to establish the ways in which female ministry in effect fulfils priestly functions. A number of questions are inevitably raised during this analysis, in particular in relation to the way in which children’s literature helps determine the perceptions of young readers.

2. Rosemary Radford Ruether Christology in Feminist and International Perspectives

The course moves through five modules:

• Christology in contemporary critical perspectives: Europe and North America
• U.S. North American Feminist Perspectives
• Latin American Liberation and Feminist Perspectives
• African Feminist Perspectives
• Feminist Christologies from Asia

3. John Wijngaards, The ministry of women according to Sacred Scripture

The course aims at providing an introduction to the main topics of discussion concerning Sacred Scripture and the ministry of women. The traditional arguments drawn from Scripture to exclude women from the ordained ministries are assesed regarding their biblical validity. Positive scriptural indications that favour the inclusion of women in the ministries are explored. Underpinning the course is a professional grasp of the correct rules of scriptural interpretation.

Other courses are in preparation.

How will we function?

We have been in touch with on-line universities, both academic ones attached to lecture-hall universities and online-only universities. Learning from them, our present plans are as follows:

1. We first need to build up a credible syllabus with courses designed by professional virtual 'staff'.
2. Students will pay to enrol. However, we envisage a two-tier system
   (a) self-improvement students who pay only a little. We are thinking of housewives, parish activists, retired people etc. who want the knowledge, but are not interested in the academic credits.
   (b) academic students who pay more, who receive opportunities of 'tuition' (by correspondence), whose work will be assessed and who will receive credits on completing the course(s).
3. ‘Staff’ do not get paid for designing the courses and providing lesson material that is available online. However, staff would get paid, per student and per course, for tuition and online assessment.
4. During the first two to three years we will build up a credible syllabus. We will open courses to students as soon as a number are functional.
5. Once we have gained some experience, we will approach colleges and universities here in the UK to explore accreditation, and its conditions. In theory, we could also affiliate ourselves to universities in other countries.

We welcome your cooperation, suggestions and advice