About
About This Office
A Work Ordered to Discernment, Formation, and Faithful Ministry
The Office of Staffing and Vocations serves the life of the Church by receiving inquiries, guiding discernment, and helping prepare those who may be called to ordained ministry, incardination, or religious life within the Old Catholic Churches International.
Pax et Bonum
The Purpose of This Office
The Church has a solemn duty to receive vocations with charity, test them with wisdom, and form them with reverence. The Office of Staffing and Vocations exists for that purpose. It helps men and women take the next faithful step as they discern whether the Lord is calling them to a life of ordained service or religious commitment in the Church.
This office is not merely administrative. Its work belongs to the wider pastoral and sacramental life of the Church. Questions of ministry are questions of calling, character, formation, and readiness to serve Christ’s people with humility, steadiness, and sound judgment.
How We Serve the Church
Discernment
We assist inquirers as they begin to examine a possible call to ministry, helping them approach that discernment prayerfully, honestly, and in the life of the Church.
Formation
We help candidates understand the expectations of preparation, documentation, review, and spiritual maturity that belong to a serious and faithful vocational process.
Staffing for Ministry
We support the Church by helping prepare qualified clergy for service, so that parishes, ministries, and communities may be strengthened by capable and pastoral leadership.
The Character of Vocational Work
A true vocation is more than interest, ability, or personal preference. It must be tested over time. It must be measured by faith, sacramental life, moral seriousness, pastoral disposition, and the willingness to be formed by the Church rather than merely affirmed by it.
For that reason, the vocational process is undertaken with care. The Church seeks not only to welcome those who inquire, but to discern wisely whether a person is prepared for the demands of ministry and whether that ministry may be exercised fruitfully for the good of the faithful.
The aim of this office is not simply to fill roles, but to help prepare clergy and religious who can serve with reverence at the altar, charity in pastoral care, and fidelity in the life of the Church.
A Process Rooted in Responsibility
The Church’s public standards for formation reflect the seriousness of Holy Orders and the responsibilities of religious life. Discernment includes conversation, application, documentation, review, and a sustained period of formation. Those who enter the process are asked to proceed with patience, transparency, and a readiness to be guided.
Such care protects both the candidate and the Church. It honors the dignity of ministry, safeguards the faithful, and helps ensure that those who are received into preparation are able to serve with maturity, integrity, and perseverance.
For Those Beginning to Inquire
Some come to this office already convinced of a call. Others arrive with questions, uncertainty, or only the first stirrings of vocation. In either case, the proper beginning is the same: prayer, honesty, and a willingness to listen for the voice of Christ in the life of the Church.
If you are exploring ordained ministry, incardination, or religious life within the Old Catholic Churches International, this office is here to help you understand the path ahead and to begin that work in a spirit of faith, humility, and obedience.