In this episode, Fr Lorenzo Lebrija chats with the Rev Tricia Lyons about the Mutual Ministry initiative at Virginia Theological seminary. A grant initiative and multi-year process designed to leverage the strengths and address the challenges of a residential, denominational seminary to meet the urgent need for clergy and lay leaders trained as ministry developers in local, culturally specific contexts by shifting from the model where professional clergy are the sole minister that others gather around.

https://vts.edu/resource/mutual-ministry/

Patricia “Tricia” Lyons is a Senior Lecturer in Practical Theology at Virginia Seminary, teaching theology and evangelism. She works with the VTS Lifelong Learning team and serves as the Senior Advisor to the Dean for Evangelism Initiatives. Tricia was a lay chaplain and teacher of religion in Episcopal Schools for 20 years before being ordained a priest and then serving urban parishes in Washington, DC, and eventually serving as Canon for Evangelism in the Diocese of Washington. Tricia also serves as a non-stipendiary priest at the Church of Saint Clement in Alexandria, VA. 

Tricia is a member of the Presiding Bishop’s Strategic Cabinet on Evangelism and one of the original writers of the “Way of Love” church-wide curriculum. She is an honors graduate from Harvard College, the Harvard Divinity School and received her doctorate from the Virginia Theological Seminary. Tricia also currently directs a 1-million-dollar grant from the Lilly Foundation, Inc., to study models of mutual ministry across the country. She is the author of five books on faith formation, “The Soul of Adolescence,” “Teaching Faith with Harry Potter,” “What is Evangelism?” “The Evangelist’s Breviary,” “Thirty Days: A Devotional” and the upcoming devotional “From Rome to Home: A 30-Day Devotional for those traveling from Roman Catholicism to the Episcopal Church.”