About

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20

+OUR MISSION

• To prepare the faithful and help them answer their calling to serve in God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, specifically but not exclusively, within the Independent Sacramental Movement.
• To provide the seeker with a well rounded education in, philosophy, theology, church history, mysticism, pastoral counseling, and independent catholicism, with a specific emphasis on the distinctives of Celtic Christianity.
• To pursue an understanding of our faith within the context of a quest guided by Holy Writ, Celtic Christian spirituality, catholic tradition, a generous orthodoxy, and a reforming reason, all stemming from the continued revelation of the Holy Spirit active within our lives.
• To discover our dependence on the transforming power of God, the enabling Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.
• To educate for spiritual renewal, global responsibility, and to mobilize people for ministry.
• To nurture an academic community for the courageous and rigorous exchange of intellectual and spiritual ideas of faith while at the same time, discovering new paradigms of being a community of faith in a post-modern world.

+A TRADITION OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

From the Rule of our holy Father St. Columbanus: “What is best in the world? To do the will of the maker. What is this will? That we should do what he has ordered, that is, that we should live in righteousness and seek devotedly what is eternal. How do we arrive at this? By study. We must therefore study devotedly and righteously. What is our best help in maintaining this study? The Intellect, which probes everything and, finding none of the world’s goods in which it can permanently rest, is converted by reason into the one good which is eternal.”

St. Ninian founded at Whithorn in Scotland a monastery which became famous as a school of monasticism within a century of his death. It is reported to have been a rigorous and well respected place of learning, worship, and communal living. The Coworkers of Christ Institute and Seminary (CWCIS) is a spiritual continuation of that tradition of Celtic catholic monks of long ago in the education of students in the theology and philosophy of the Christian Faith.

CWCIS was established as a seminary of Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ, an emergent and ecumenical community from the Free Catholic tradition of the Christian Church, inspired by Celtic Christianity, the Catholic Worker Movement, the Red Letter Christians, and the New Monasticism.

We are an educational ministry for the preparation and training of those who have been called to serve God and His Church through ministry and service to others. CWCIS does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin, socioeconomic status, religion, or theological beliefs. CWCIS is open to all who wish to avail themselves of its educational services.

+MENTOR PROGRAM AND TUTORIALS

The Coworkers of Christ Institute and Seminary offers course work through distance learning, and in residence at various locations and associate academic institutions. All students will be assigned an academic mentor who will advise and shepherd them through the applicable program or programs. Students are encouraged to maintain close contact with their mentor during enrollment.

A portfolio evaluation to determine the necessary course of study and required courses for a degree will be completed in consultation between the prospective student and the student’s academic mentor of the school.

We recommend our in-house media platform and press, the Coworkers of Christ Media along with the Coworkers Press for study materials. Other supplemental materials can be arranged between the student and the mentor from a variety of different sources.

+LIBRARY FACILITIES

CWCIS has a multi-volume on lending library, a multi-volume electronic library, and can access various university libraries via the Internet. Special arrangements to conduct research can be made with various programs in university settings. Details can be furnished upon request.

+TUITION AND FEES

Class costs are kept to a minimum. CWCIS does not charge credit hour tuition for students but rather courses are “given away” in the ministry and the name of the One who has given all for us: Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. There are, however, minimal usual and customary fees and deposits necessary for the continuation of the educational ministry of CWCIS. These fees, associated with administrative costs, are relatively straightforward and in most cases, affordable to the average student.

The expense of books and materials needed for each class is the financial responsibility of every student. However, in some instances a refundable Materials and Technology Fee is available for students wishing to borrow books from CWCIS’s vast library facilities.

We endeavor to keep our enrollment extremely liberal where active ministry and life experience really means something as we attempt to nurture an academic community for the courageous and rigorous exchange of intellectual and spiritual ideas of faith while at the same time, discovering new paradigms of being a community of faith in a post-modern world.

“We give with hands overflowing, what we have received with hands empty.” -The Common Rule of the Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ.

+SCHOOL MOTTO

The Coworkers of Christ Institute & Seminary motto: “Esse et Efficere Cooperatores Christi ~ To Be and To Form Coworkers of Christ” reflects our spiritual commission and our academic philosophy of education, in that as Coworkers of Christ, we are instructed by Christ Himself to go out and make disciples of all nations and to teach them in the Way of Christ.

+SCHOOL PRAYER

By St. Thomas Aquinas

Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding. Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.