Greetings!
For over 153 years the Society for the Increase of the Ministry (SIM) has been "aiding suitable persons for the Episcopal ministry in acquiring a thorough education" [SIM's 1857 charter]. Thanks to our donors 2010 has been a record year. This year's grants were the highest in our long history.
Yet a bishop says about the state of theological education today, "The Church has a 3-legged elephant teetering in its living room: seminaries are financially stressed, seminarians are carrying too much debt and curacies are drying up." An ominous condition for educating and training future ordained leadership in the Church.
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Still, the Church is blessed that dedicated women and men continue to courageously answer God's calls to serve The Episcopal Church as future ordained leaders.
Luke 14:28 admonishes us: "for which of you does first not sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough...." It is time for us to realize that we, the people of the Church, should "sit down" and "estimate the cost" of not investing in our future ordained leaders. We are the Church. Together we can make a difference for our future ordained leaders. 
I am so grateful to the SIM donors who make it possible for me to pay my seminary bills each semester, and I'm also thankful that people support our efforts to prepare for leadership in the Church. God bless!
Janine Schenone
M.Div. Candidate, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, 2012.
It's easy to give - just click here or mail your check to SIM, 924 Farmington Avenue,
Suite 100, West Hartford, CT 06107.
SIM and our seminarians Thank You.
With our best wishes for a fruitful 2011,
Faithfully,
Tom Moore
Executive Director
SIM
http://www.simministry.org
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