What's a Probationers' Conference?

During the first year of our 15-month final training placement, all of the trainees are required to attend four training conferences. These are held in various residential centres for 3 or 4 days each time.

There will be 32 trainees at the first of this year's conferences this weekend, most of whom are first-time trainees. A few of the participants are transferring from other denominations.

We will hear speakers teaching us about pastoring, preaching, bereavement care, personal spirituality, caring in the city, and church law - including marriage.

I'm looking forward to learning more about these diverse subjects, and I'm also looking forward to meeting my fellow trainees. Most of us haven't seen each other for more than a year, and some will be newcomers. I'm sure we will have a lot to talk about, having completd our university studies, and started our final placement, since we last met.

And why is it called a "Probationers' Conference'"? It's an obsolete term really, since trainees used to be licensed before we started this final stage. But we were still in a probationary period until we had finished this placement. So it was called the Probation Placement.

Nowadays, the official term is Final Placement, but no-one has found an easy-sounding replacement for the conference name, so they are still Probationers' Conferences!