About Us

The Society for the Increase of the Ministry (SIM) was founded in 1857 by a group of faculty at Trinity College and local Episcopal clergy in the Hartford, Connecticut, area to provide both scholarships and pastoral care for those who answered God’s call to ordained ministry. The founders believed that as a greater number of people entered the priesthood, parishes would be founded, churches built and the ministry of the Episcopal Church increased.

Today, the mission of the Society is still to increase the ministry of the Episcopal Church by supporting the education and training of Christ-centered, dynamic ordained leaders. Because of mounting seminarian debt, which threatens an adequate supply of priests for the church in the 21st century, SIM has increased its efforts to supply larger scholarships to more seminarians with financial needs.

The Society works closely and cooperatively with the financial aid directors, deans and faculties of all 11 accredited Episcopal seminaries. In addition, SIM works with several other education and training programs as well as with all bishops and commissions on ministry of the dioceses from which scholarship recipients come. The Society maintains a close working relationship with the Episcopal Church Foundation, the Office Of Ministry Development at the Episcopal Church Center and the Church Pension Group.

At the same time, the Society, a 501(c)3 organization, maintains an identity independent of seminaries, dioceses and national church bodies in order to be focused on meeting the needs of men and women entering Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church.

SIM offers postulants and candidates: