Welcome to our vocations page. It is important to note that admission into our Community, both for laity and for those in or seeking Holy Orders, entails a process of personal and communal discernment. Generally speaking, this discernment process begins in conversation (often informally at first) with a senior member of our Community. It is considered untimely to begin the application process before having been invited to do so.
Membership in our Community involves a substantial commitment to ongoing spiritual formation. Communal formation is expressed for us chiefly in the form of active attendance and participation in our annual (in person) convocation event, which is usually held in the Fall. Additionally, members are expected to maintain regular participation in our virtual community gatherings, and in personal relationships within the Community.
All applications must be completed in full in order to be considered, including the remitting of a non-refundable fee of $100 application fee at the time of submission. All applicants must meet the following criteria:
Must be 18yrs years of age to seek membership, and 21yrs of age to seek the Holy Orders.
Must complete a criminal background check (at your cost) acceptable to our Community's leadership.
Must provide proof of baptism and any other sacraments received, or be willing to receive them within our Community. In some cases, applicants may be asked to receive sacraments sub conditione.
Must be fluent in English communication (both verbal and written), and be possessed of an appropriate disposition for participation in an academically and intellectually rigorous program of formation if seeking Holy Orders.
For those seeking clerical incardination:
Must provide proof of all prior minor/major orders (instruments, certificates etc).
Must provide an excardination document from prior jurisdiction or community showing release in good standing (some exceptions, with good reason, may apply).
Must abstain from any ministry ongoing without the express consent of Community leadership during incardination process. Applicants who choose receive Holy Orders while engaged in this process will be deemed ineligible for admission into the Community.
Must submit all formal educational transcripts, and be willing to seek additional education as may be indicated by Formation Director.
Minimally, the process of being admitted into our Community will involve the following steps:
Upon reception of a completed application and fee, a short phone interview will be scheduled with one of our Community leaders.
The interviewer will discuss the content of the interview, and provide a summary and disposition to the co-leaders of our Community.
Should the outcome of the interview and subsequent discussion be favorable, a formation director will be assigned, and the applicant will be requested to write and submit two reflective papers:
Spiritual Autobiography: A retrospective review of your religious and spiritual history, with emphasis on key experiences, values, and any relevant aspects of call (both to our community, and into ministry as may be appropriate). Attention should be paid in this document to your personal identity, and how religion and spirituality and integrated into it.
Ministerial Projection: Our Community is committed to contemplative spiritual formation and apostolic ministry. All of our members, laity and clergy alike, are called to ministry from within. This paper asks that you describe not just your call to ministry and to our Community, but also your missional imagination, and how the charism of our Community can support your vision of Christian life and ministry.
Upon submission and acceptable review of these documents, the formation director will initiate a continued conversation with the applicant, to further clarify how membership in our Community can both support the applicant in their spiritual life, and how the applicant may support fellow members, collegially and fraternally. Transparency is essential in this (and all) steps, and potential members should freely express their own beliefs, feelings, hopes, and concerns related to the possibility of joining the Community and adopting its charism. Time may be scheduled for the applicant to join in the life of the Community, either via digital (Zoom) gatherings, through in-person participation in one of our communities, or at Convocation, and in one-on-one conversation with other members of our Community.
Following this period of conversation, at an appropriate time, and as a product of mutual discernment, an applicant may move forward with membership in the Community (with the assent of its leadership), or they may be directed to more appropriate contexts for living out and growing into their unique calling.
A Note on Leadership: It is important to note that leadership of the Alexandrian Community is provided for by a three Bishops presiding in the roles of Abbot, Prior, and Provost, who seek to embody the trinitarian ideal of the three who work as one, in order to avoid the pitfalls of charismatic and autocratic leadership. These bishops are collectively responsible for all aspects of ministerial formation, share in all leadership discernment, and provide routine administrative oversight, arbitrating all final determinations concerning the corporate life of the Community. Any other members of our Community who may be consecrated as bishops hold auxiliary roles in the administrative structure of the Community, while yet holding the fullness of the priesthood as spiritual elders.
Application and Fee Please click here to be directed to the current application. Please submit your application fee directly by clicking here.