The Abiding Presence Cohort Group is comprised of six Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) clergy women living in five different states. They are interested in the balance between body and spirit, intellect and heart and the search for understanding of what it means to embody spirituality. They plan four retreats. At each retreat they will work with an expert in one of the following four areas: Authentic Movement; Pottery; Story Telling; and Drama. They want to share what they discover by coordinating and facilitating workshops and retreats in their local settings.

As a group of women in high profile ministerial positions their focus is on building a rich, trusting community in order to develop spiritual practices, strategies for self-care, and increase supervisory/managerial competencies.
 
The Circle of Shalom Cohort is made up of five Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) supervisors from different denominations in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. They will explore these issues from feminist perspectives. They will meet in person on a quarterly basis either in Austin or in Dallas, and gather monthly either on-line or via conference call. They plan two longer retreats, one in New Mexico and one in Tuscany. They will share what they've learned by writing an article for publication in the Journal of Pastoral Care and hope to conduct a workshop about their cohort experience at the ACPE Annual conference.

The focus of their work in The College of Pastoral Leaders is the exploration of the existing interdependence between a congregation/ministry context, the community in which it resides and the leaders who serve them.  The Community Ministry Catalyst Group consists of seven Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors serving a variety of ministry settings in the San Antonio area. In their ministries they face a marked disconnect between congregational membership and the surrounding neighborhoods.

They are convinced that pastoral excellence demands the capacity to understand and engage each of these arenas in order to define and articulate a common hope for transformation and well-being. In addition to their monthly meetings they plan a seminar in Central America to learn from minister colleagues who live in more economically challenging circumstances. They hope to share what they learn by offering workshops within their presbytery's annual mission conference; offering a mini-seminar through Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and serving as consultants for churches and agencies of their presbytery.

Reflecting theologically on areas such as global economics, the human genome project, and changes in the field of high-tech.
The group is comprised of six Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastors from Oklahoma, Texas and North Carolina. These are disciplines that affect their congregations but about which the pastors know little. They plan four retreats with an expert in a particular discipline as well as a homilitician who will guide them in interpreting the new information theologically.

Centers their group around spiritual formation, renewal, pastoral care and social justice.  The Out of the Whirlwind Cohort consists of seven clergy (three men and four women) from three different traditions, located in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont. They intend to be a group of mutual support and friendship. They will gather monthly for day-long meetings. Five of their meetings will feature guest speakers, spiritual directors or artists. They plan a longer retreat to New Mexico where to volunteer at a border ministry. They will end their two years together with a pilgrimage to Spain. They want to encourage and guide other ministers in their geographic areas to create their own peer groups.

The focus of their work is on leadership.  The Spectrum Cohort includes seven Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) clergy men in the Houston area. They explore the tradition as well as the spirituality of Christian leadership. They want to discern what energizes and what depletes them as pastors and people. They work to enhance their skills for ministry as well as assess their aptitude for a variety of ministry opportunities in a rapidly changing ministry environment and culture. In addition to their once a month meetings with teaching fellow, Janet Maykus, they plan two weekend-long gatherings with a guest theologian, sociologist, psychotherapist or storyteller. They will share their insights at gatherings of Presbytery and Synod executives to encourage the consideration of the importance of peer learning.