Cherry Hill Seminary
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Cherry Hill Seminary, located in Bethel, Vermont, is an educational institution for pagan teachers, ministers and clergy. It offers training in Public Ministry and Pagan Pastoral Counseling, with specializations in Community Ritual, Interfaith Development, Leadership and Administration, and Pastoral Care as a Public Minister. Cherry Hill has more than twenty full-time or part-time faculty. Some, such as M. Macha Nightmare, are well-known in the pagan community; most are published authors/scholars in their field; nearly all are practitioners in the areas they teach. Cherry Hill does not offer introductory-level classes; instead it is designed to assist pagans already knowledgeable in their chosen path who feel called to take on a leadership/service role in the pagan community.
Instruction is done online although a minimum of two on-campus residencies are required prior to graduation. Classes are considered to be graduate level in terms of the intellectual effort involved, thus a bachelor's degree is preferred (though not required) for admission. Courses cover the full range of responsibilities expected of a minister or pastor of any faith, including rites of passage, crafting a wedding, building a pagan community, comparative religion, history of religion, congregation administration, grant writing and fund raising, and other skills and knowledge useful to spiritual group leaders and counselors.
As of January 2007, Cherry Hill was not yet approved to grant Master's degrees, but was actively seeking accreditation from the Distance Education Training Council (DETC) as a preliminary step towards obtaining degree-granting authority from the state of Vermont.