With a bachelor’s or master’s degree in theology in combination with the pastoral program, you will get both a deep and broadly based academic training in theology and a pastoral theological degree which will prepare you for your work as a pastor.
To be a pastor is to meet people in life’s different life situations and stages. It is to go with them, sometimes in front, sometimes behind. It is to be rooted in one’s own faith in order to be able to share it with others. To be a pastor is to be able to interpret and explain biblical texts, shape worship services, lead congregations and groups, deal with existential issues, interpret present experience, listen, inspire and comfort. As a pastor, you can work in a congregation, in pioneering projects, in international partner churches or in institutional pastoral care as a prison school or hospital chaplain. Few jobs require such broad competence. Therefore a good pastoral education must have both breadth and depth, both theoretical sharpness and be anchored in practical reality. Most of the teachers who teach at THS have experience of working in a congregation and are pastors themselves.
Like many other vocational training courses, the training for pastoral candidates in the Uniting Church includes courses with work-based education (VFU).
This means that the student spends a period of time in a parish every year from the second year of study to observe, analyze and practice.
Why should I take this program?
In the theological program with a pastoral training specialization, you will get either a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree in theology and in addition a professional training in pastoral care. With this training, you will be eligible to be employed as a pastor in a parish or to work as a pastor in institutional mental health care or in pioneering projects. This training will also equip you for work in other sectors of civil society. To become a pastor in certain denominations, such as the Uniting Church, you must also be accepted as a pastoral candidate by that Church. See more information here (in Swedish): www.blipastor.nu