Students enroll in ChIME’s Interfaith Ministry program for both personal growth and also professional development. The program has ample room for discovery, skill-building, and practice for students seeking to clarify and deepen their own spiritual path as well as those who are seeking ordination as interfaith ministers.

Weekly classes and weekend workshops introduce students to a diversity of ideas, practices, beliefs and theories. Readings and reflection papers invite students to explore a little more deeply and reflect on how new information resonates with their embedded theology and their experiences in the world. Meanwhile class discussion and service hours provide opportunities to listen, learn, speak, explore, and practice new ways of being with others. Throughout their learning journey, students are supported by their cohort, either meeting weekly online or in-person in Portland, ME.

The cohort model is an integral aspect of ChIME’s interfaith ministry program as students provide a strong foundation of community support for one another. Because the curriculum is cyclical and experiential, all students participate in all aspects of the program. While most students progress through the program sequentially, a student will occasionally take a year or two away from their studies between the first and second year or extend the responsibilities of the second year into a third year. Whether finishing in two or three years, ChIME grads agree that their cohort(s) play an integral role in their learning and development.