Exeter Ordination Pathway (EOP)
The Exeter Ordination Pathway (EOP) is a new ordination training pathway being offered by the Diocese of Exeter. It is designed for people identified and called out by their local church leadership with a vocation to serve as an assistant priest in their local context. Following a local discernment, people recommended for training by their Team Rector (Incumbent) and PCC will then go through the national discernment process before undertaking 12 months of part-time ordination formation delivered by the Bishop of Exeter and others.
Those who have no formal theological training will also take essential modules in biblical studies and other areas the discernment process may recommend. Towards the end of the formation year the bishop will discern with them whether the time is right to be ordained and, if so, they would then join the curate programme of ongoing training and formation.
The pathway is aimed at people who are settled in their local community and do not anticipate moving. It would not suit people with a vocation to a deployable role, for example an incumbent or Self-Supporting Ordained Minister (SSOM) whose circumstances might mean a move is likely at some stage to another context or diocese.
The EOP is being introduced from September 2025 with a small cohort before being opened up more widely across the diocese for September 2026. It is part of our strategy to provide resources and re-ignite the local church to be the witness and praying community it is called to be, for the sake of others.
Experienced lay ministers who are wondering about a vocation to ordained ministry should first consult their incumbent and PCC to discern together whether this might be an ordained vocation and, if so, the suitability of this pathway. Part-time and full-time training for deployable roles will still be the main ways people are prepared for ordained ministry, and the Vocations Officer and Diocesan Director of Ordinands will support candidates in this process.
Key criteria are:
- The sense of call is discerned largely locally to serve locally.
- Those called are committed to their locality/parish and do not anticipate moving.
- People entering discernment will already be exercising ministry locally, for example as LLM, church warden, member of a pastoral care team, chaplain, leader of a house group or in work with children, young people and families. They will have the confidence of the congregation(s) in which they are set and that of the incumbent – this is a large part of the discernment.
- There will be a sense that this person is already ministering in an implicitly priestly way and does not need the usual training for ordination but a shortened experience of formation to help them step fully into that priestly role.
Click here to read the Exeter Ordination Pathway FAQs Document for more info
