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We have filled our Lilly Residency position, and are thus no longer accepting applications. Please check back at the end of 2012!
THE CHURCH PROFILE: Hyde Park Union Church is an intentionally multicultural Christian congregation committed to merging critical reflection with relevant practice. We are a moderate size, theologically liberal congregation affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ. Located in the racially integrated and socio-economically diverse urban neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, we live and work in the shadow of a world-class university and within a mile of some of the poorest communities in Chicago. Under the leadership of its first-ever, full-time multicultural staff, Hyde Park Union is actively engaged in issues of race, class, hunger, poverty, youth violence, child welfare, mental illness, substance abuse, and disparities in health care and education. We are the home of community dance and music outreach programs for children and youth, and host a number of our own sacred jazz programs annually. Hyde Park Union operates the community’s local food pantry and soup kitchen. It is our mission to celebrate the work of God’s Spirit in the world through Christian fellowship and service throughout the community, practicing a welcoming spirit, honoring each person, and challenging people to seek God’s purpose in the world –with the promise of joy, renewal, and spiritual growth.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD PROFILE: Hyde Park Union Church serves the mid-south side of Chicago, primarily the neighborhood of Hyde Park/Kenwood, a stable, racially integrated, socio-economically mixed community of approximately 42,000 which is home to the University of Chicago, a world-renowned research university and college with medical, business, law, social work and divinity schools which operate as professional schools and research academies. Hyde Park Union Church is engaged in theological education and partners in a variety of ways with the six theological schools, including the University of Chicago Divinity School, which are also located here.
Hyde Park is 12 minutes from downtown Chicago, with good public schools and public transportation. Community residents enjoy the easy commute to work, the nearness of lakefront parks and museums, and the distinctive richness of the African-American cultural heritage of the city’s South Side, as well as the significant challenges of a major urban community.
PASTORAL RESIDENCY PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Through a partnership with the Lilly Endowment, Hyde Park Union Church offers a two-year, full-time, paid Residency in Pastoral Ministry for recent seminary graduates as further intentional and practical preparation for ministry. Residents will receive broad training and experience in all aspects of professional ministry, will work closely with the pastoral staff, and will have on-going exposure to one another's work. The program provides residents with a model of collegial relationship and theological reflection on issues that might otherwise be managed through more superficial problem solving.
We share the concern articulated by Lilly Endowment, Inc., that promising new pastors face multiple challenges after having had relatively few experiences through which to develop good habits, a secure sense of professional identity, or the strategies for creating a continuing network of resources and relationships. We are pleased to offer the kind of sanctuary and crucible in which such theological, social, and personal issues may be thoughtfully analyzed and tended.
As the result of their opportunities to do independent work in a congregational setting with planned congregational support and collegial supervision, we anticipate that residents will experience measurable growth in a number of areas of ministerial leadership, including pastoral and worship leadership, preaching, pastoral care, administration, mission and service, and Christian education.
Residents will have ongoing exposure to one another's work and the deliberations of the pastoral staff through regular weekly staff meetings. More importantly, regular continuing education seminars and retreats will provide residents with a model of healthy collegial relationship and theological reflection. Staff meetings often include non-pastoral staff and provide ample exposure to the integration of tasks and coordination of church life, as well as the development of whole-staff relationships. In addition to program-related staff meetings, the residency includes monthly gatherings of the pastoral staff for more extended discussion. These include theological and sociological reflection, and critique of our cultural and congregational context of ministry, book studies and occasional guest presenters from area seminaries and other outside resources. Residents also have the opportunity to attend an annual professional conference, denominational biennial, or other retreat.
AREAS OF FOCUS IN PASTORAL RESIDENCY: Throughout the two-year residency, the resident will spend half of his or her time in worship leadership, preaching, church administration and pastoral care. The church has also identified three specific areas of pastoral development: a church-based urban hospital chaplaincy; intentional multicultural ministry with adults; and work with children and families. The resident will spend half of his or her time in consecutive eight-month rotations in each these areas.
ROTATION IN THE GILEAD MINISTRY, our church-based hospital chaplaincy (July – February): The pastoral resident will spend one-half of his/her time, under the supervision of the Gilead Ministry Director (a pastor on our church staff), providing spiritual care at Jackson Park Hospital, a small urban community hospital with general medical, obstetrics, emergency and psychiatric departments. In this capacity the resident will also work with the director of Gilead to provide meaningful opportunities for church members to serve the hospital throughout the year. The resident will be eligible to earn one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education through Gilead’s partnership with the Chicago’s Urban CPE Consortium.
ROTATION IN MULTI-CULTURAL MINISTRY WITH ADULTS (March – October): Although the entire church program reflects its commitment to multi-cultural life and education, the pastoral resident will spend one-half of his or her time working with the pastors on programs for adult fellowship and education that intentionally deepen and strengthen our communal identity and practice. Hyde Park Union has a rich diversity of educational programs for its membership, including Bible study, a younger adult group, and its “second hour programs” following worship that allow for teaching, discussion, and interaction. The church is also engaged in ecumenical anti-violence witness across the city and sponsors occasional public forums that engage the broader community.
ROTATION IN WORK WITH CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (November – June): For eight months, the pastoral resident will spend one-half of his or her time working with programming designed for children, youth and families. Along with the widely recognized Montessori-based Godly Play program for very young children, Hyde Park Union Church has written and maintains its own scripture-based curriculum for elementary school aged children modeled after the discussion methods of the Jr. Great Books program and incorporating significant art and service projects. Teens help to shape their learning and living covenants and an active social program. The pastoral resident will also help lay leadership organize several major holiday parties and service projects designed for families throughout the year.
Application for 2011-2012
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
HYDE PARK UNION CHURCH
5600 South Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
773.363.6063
office@hpuc.org
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