The Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE)

Founded in 1976, SCUPE is an interdenominational agency committed to the development of individuals, congregations and organizations for leadership in urban ministry. For individuals, we offer five accredited graduate-level academic programs, the semester-and-or summer-term Graduate Theological Urban Studies program for seminary students; a M.A. in Social Justice and Community Development degree developed in partnership with the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University; Nurturing the Call, a year-long sequence of graduate courses in theology and ministry for urban pastors who have not previously attended seminary; the Center for African American Theological Studies, an Africentric 3-year M.Div program; and the Advanced Latino Theological Education program, a regional partnership of Instituto Biblico Ebnezer and Western Theolgical Seminary.
SCUPE also consults to other ministries and urban institutions, providing specially-designed training programs around issues including diversity, strategic planning, leadership development , and human resource mobilization. We operate an urban ministry resource center and occasionally publish resource materials as a service to the urban church. Every two years, SCUPE also organizes the Congress on Urban Ministry as a training and networking event for those in urban ministry.