In recent years, a significant shift in the demographics of Episcopal seminary students has produced a younger group of seminarians.

These younger seminarians have much more undergraduate educational debt than their seminary counterparts of the past 30 years. The previous generation of students often entered seminary to pursue second or third careers. They liquidated assets, in many cases at great sacrifice to themselves and their families, to pay for their seminary education and training. Older students entering seminary today still use this method to fund their education, but the only recourse for many younger students is to fund their seminary education by going into debt. 

Today, the average debt load for individual students graduating from colleges and universities in the United States is $18,000. With tuition and fees rising by an average of 14 percent per year, this debt load is expected to increase.

The cost of three years of seminary can range from $51,000 to $90,000 or even more, depending upon family circumstances.

In a 2006 survey of the class of 2007 at the 11 Episcopal seminaries, 58 percent of the students had debt. The average debt load was $42,874 only halfway through their training. Meanwhile the annual median compensation package (including housing allowance) for new Episcopal clergy is $44,500; yet bank lenders say you need $60,000 of income to pay for living expenses and effectively manage educational and credit card debt of $38,000.

A study by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education showed that borrowing among seminarians across denominations grew steadily both in terms of the extent and level of borrowing. In 1991, only 1 percent of Master of Divinity (M.Div.) graduates had borrowed $30,000 or more, while 21 percent of the graduates in 2001 had borrowed at that level. 

The Society for the Increase of the Ministry has determined that an ordinand who graduates with $50,000 or more of debt, without third-party financial assistance in paying off that debt, stands on the threshold of disaster in both their ministry and family life.

Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church remains the only major denomination in the United States that does not have a central funding source to support seminarians in their education and training. The purpose of Funding Future Leaders: A National Endowment for Episcopal Seminarians (FFL) is to support students in financial need so they will not incur more debt while they are in seminary.

Consequences of Seminarian Debt