Tuition

Tuition for the Deacons' School is $600/weekend for each student or $5,400 total (nine weekends). The cost of books is estimated to be about $90/retreat, or $810 total. 

Click here for dates, locations and subjects of each weekend. 
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Students will be sent a learning agreement regarding financial and formational expectations to sign and return to the Deacons' School via the Diocese of Virginia's offices.

Making Payments

Checks should be made payable to "The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia" with "Weekend [1 or 2, etc.] Deacons' School" in the memo line at least one month before the retreat with the exception of the first weekend. Checks can be sent to Vicky Bickel, registrar, at 110 West Franklin St., Richmond, VA 23220.

Payment Due Dates

  • Jan. 3, 2019 for Weekend 1
  • Mar. 5, 2019 for Weekend 2
  • Jun. 12, 2019 for Weekend 3
  • Sept. 11, 2019 for Weekend 4
  • Dec. 10, 2019 for Weekend 5
  • Mar. 17, 2020 for Weekend 6
  • Jun. 10, 2020 for Weekend 7
  • Sept. 9, 2020 for Weekend 8
  • Dec. 8, 2020 for Weekend 9

Payment for Weekend 1 (Jan. 11-13, 2019) is due by Jan. 3, 2019. Payment will be due one month in advance for Weekends 2-9.
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Extensions

In extenuating circumstances, a student may ask to delay payment. A request to delay must be made via email or letter and approved by the student's diocesan bishop or the bishop’s designee, with copy to Vicky Bickel and Lynn Orville*, dean of the school. If the extension is granted by the diocesan bishop/designee, notice should be sent to Vicky Bickel, registrar, with details about when to expect payment.

​*The dean is not responsible for the financial stewardship of the school; the copy is intended to inform the dean of a possible pastoral concern.

Joyful Fundraising, Joyful Giving

We invite students and churches to raise the money for tuition. The total cost of tuition for all nine retreats for the student is $5,400.

Interns in the Young Adult Service Corps, a program of the Episcopal Church which sends its interns into the Anglican Communion for a year of service abroad, are asked to raise $10,000 towards the cost of the internship.

We believe that a similar invitation to the prospective Deacons’ School student’s congregation to contribute financially – tangibly – to their education would undergird the church’s  understanding of its role in the student’s future ministry.

We hope that the partners in supporting the students financially – the churches, the dioceses, the students themselves – will not view tuition as “perk money” towards personal enrichment, but an investment in forming, to quote Bp. Curry, “agents and instruments of God’s reconciliation.”

Some possibilities for fundraising:
  • Hold a potluck supper for the student, talk to the gathered about the vocational diaconate and the Deacons’ School, and have the cost of the dinner and/or a collection taken at the dinner go towards the student’s tuition.
  • Dedicate one Sunday’s loose plate offering to the student’s tuition.
  • Put out the call for donations to the student’s tuition in a parish letter, email or newsletter.
We believe the students and churches will be surprised by the generosity of the congregation and community. If the student and church raise more than $4,950 or if the student felt called to fund his/her tuition independently, the extra money can be put towards the cost of the student’s books (about $90/retreat) or be contributed to the Deacons' School. We hope to build up a scholarship fund in the coming years in partnership with the three dioceses and their churches.