The ATP Certificate - Frequently Asked Questions
Conversation Partner Edition
Here you’ll find some general answers about the ATP Certificate, as well as some very specific stuff for Conversation partners…
What is the ATP Certificate?
This is the Anglican Theology and Practice Certificate, awarded to a participant who has completed 4 SFC Short Courses, related reflection questions, and who has had conversations with a Conversation Partner about their 4 final creative reflections (one per Short Course). Fit in an Anglican Experience workshop somewhere during your progress and you’re done!
2. What is the timeline for someone doing the ATP Certificate?
Each SFC Short Course, given 1 hour per week, should take about 6 weeks. Then give time for a creative response, and the candidate could spend 8 weeks engaged in one SFC Short Course. So, that leads us to think that a person may reasonably complete 4 Short Courses in one school year (4 terms). Fit in an Anglican Experience workshop somewhere during your progress and you’re done! Keen participants can move more quickly through the courses if they wish.Others may need to take more time. Flexibilily is our key word, and we hope people will make it work for them.
3. Who would suit this ATP Certificate?
Young adults
Adults
Anyone on a faith journey
Anyone asking questions about faith.
Liturgical Assistants, RI Teachers, Sunday School/Children’s Church leaders, Parish Councillors, Wardens, you name it
4. Why would I want my people involved?
It’s a tool to challenge and educate people toward a deep faith.
It provides a way to get people doing their own thinking about faith.
It gives a concrete process for you to talk through faith questions with the people in your place.
Every participant has ongoing access to a growing set of resources for faith development: other people’s stories of ‘aha’ moments, curated resources that have proven valuable to others; gatherings with other graduates of the certificate to continue the conversation; brand new faith education resources.
5. What’s the benefit to my parish or school?
Like yeast in the dough, a few engaged and challenged learners will enliven all aspects of community life!
6. What’s the benefit to me as a Clergy person?
The ATP Certificate gives a structure that supports adult learners to do their thing. Once they’ve given 6-8 hours of thought and prayer to a subject, they get together with you to discuss.
Each person comes to you (their Conversation Partner) with hours of experience already. The dynamic then is more of ‘fellow travellers’, and hopefully this encourages you as clergy, to converse with informed, engaged people who have taken responsibility for their own faith development.
Of course, if you and your people prefer to work through something like this together, go for it! The aim is to encourage people towards self-directed learning, and some people prefer to see that modelled first, others just like to mix it up with others for fun.
7. Why does the ATP Certificate cost $300? What is the money for?
The SFC Short Courses are available free online, along with discussion questions and ideas for group work. This is certainly an option for personal study.
Enrolment in the ATP Certificate gives the participant access to a growing set of online resources, ongoing opportunities to meet and discuss learning, and lots of support (materials and people) as you go through the certificate year.
It is also recognised as a formal course of learning by the wider Anglican Church and School communities, so allows you to show others that you’ve spent a year in learning and reflection.
There are layers of accountability built into the ATP Certificate process. You engage with a Conversation Partner, attend gatherings with other learners, and may liaise with St Francis College Staff for interviews to create resources. These are important indicators of collegiate learning rather than independent learning.
If you move to another parish, Liturgical Assistants will be able to show they’ve completed the certificate course about Anglican Worship and Liturgy.
Religious Education teachers can move between schools, and this certificate shows they have completed 24-32 hours of professional development in Theology, Christian Education and the Anglican Church.
The payment contributes to the cost of the
administration staff who liaise with participants and conversation partners
website design and management
staff to create, curate and update resources
ongoing training and support of Conversation partners
8. How will someone hear about this?
You can advertise this course in your place
Perhaps you could ask all Parish volunteers to do it.
People will see it promoted in Anglican Focus and Wednesday Weekly.
They may hear others talking about how amazing it is.
They may find the site and see other participants discussing what they got out of it.
9. What does the role of Conversation Partner involve?
Encourage people to engage with this course.
Follow them up when they register and ask what Short Course they started with.
Become familiar with the videos in that Short Course
Check in to see if they might need encouragement, but this really is meant to be adult, self-directed learning, so no need to baby-sit.
Pray for the participants regularly throughout the year. There is a suggestion for such a prayer here.
Make a time to meet with them at the end of the course, to use their Conversation Piece as stimulus for a conversation about what they found. This is the Post-Course Conversation (PCC).
Use the simple criteria on the PCC outline to see how they went.
Liaise with FormEdFaith staff at St Francis College, informing them when a participant has completed four courses nand an Anglican Expereince worshop.
FormEdFaith staff will authorise Certicate completion and send you the participant’s certificate for counter-signing
Award the certificate at the end of the processs.
You may choose to do this in a service; there is a short liturgy for awarding this certificate. You can find that here. It will be a joyous occasion!
10. How long will this take?
For each participant – encouragement, maybe 2 brief mid-course checks, then once they’ve finished each course, they’ll contact you to make a time to chat about their learning.
This adds up to about 2 hours of your time per participant, per short course.
11. What do I need to know about being a Conversation Partner?
How to talk about faith issues in a way that allows for differences of experience and opinion. See Jonathan Sargeant’s video for some ideas about this: Talking about faith ideas peacefully. At this page, you’ll find a video and a PowerPoint presentation about this.
Be clear about the ATP Certificate content and process.
Be clear about what your hopes are for those who participate, and for the parish.
You need to know whose Conversation Partner you are!
Watch the relevant SFC Short Course videos – you only need to do this once, not once per person!
Have an open heart and mind.
Be prepared to learn from the participant about their interpretations.
Liaise with FormEdFaith staff at St Francis College, informing them when a participant has completed four courses and an Anglican Experience Workshop.
FormEdFaith staff will authorise Certicate completion and send you the participant’s certificate for counter-signing.
You may choose to do this in a service; there is a short liturgy for awarding this certificate. It will be a joyous occasion!
12. How can I tell if someone is a pass/fail after each SFC Short Course?
Check the simple criteria on the PCC outline: you’ll find that here…
It’s really about whether the participant has engaged with the material and expressed their understanding.
If in doubt, check in with FormEdFaith staff at St Francis College and we’ll have a chat.
13. Should the parish sponsor people to do this certificate?
Here are some thoughts about that, really it’s up to you, and it depends on what you hope to get out of this process.
Why someone might answer “yes” to that-
Because its in a parish’s best interests to challenge and educate towards deeper faith
All communities grow when education is a key factor
Parish volunteers will make more nuanced decisions and contributions
There are grants available to support the training of volunteers, check them out here
Why someone might answer “no” to that-
Because people value what they pay for
Because it doesn’t fit in the budget
14. What if there are enough people for a group?
Groups provide accountability and encouragement.
This is designed as an adult-learning exercise, and so adults can work together to organise a time to meet and a process.
Ideally this group would be self-managed – you can choose to let it happen without you, and be the Conversation Partner to each person outside of that group time.
Participants could work on different Short Courses at the same time. This keeps the valuable element of self-determination, although some groups may choose to work on the same Short Course at the same time. The element of choice is important, but what groups do to keep everyone together should be a local group decision.
Prior to meeting: Participants view and respond to questions in their own time using a journal.
Group time is then free to answer general questions, for example:
Tell about 2 things you want to remember from your work this week.
What ‘aha’ moments did you experience?
Describe one point that you wish everyone understood
This means that everyone needs to contribute. Each person’s response to these questions will be unique, whether the group is working on the same course or different courses. This approach keeps the group time fresh and alerts people to other courses they can look forward to.
