Hi Tin: I'll assume you mean the ELCA (all Lutherans use the term "Evangelical Lutheran", BTW). IIRC, the ELCA maintains a list of acceptable schools. It may be the case that certain seminaries are correlated to certain geographical areas--I'm not sure that this is the case, but I vaguely remember an ELCA bureaucrat telling me this. You might be able to do part of your work at a non-ELCA DL seminary provided that you finish up in-house. This would most likely apply only to seminaries of those denominations with which the ELCA has declared fellowship. However, I should warn you that unless you have a really, really compelling practical reason for doing something out of the ordinary, you will meet with an extremely skeptical response from those who must vet you for the various stages of approval for ordination. The ELCA is militantly liberal; attending a TRACS school would be a kiss of death. Mind you, the ELCA has a perfect right to enforce conformity to its beliefs and policies; the prudent seminarian in any church body does not trumpet his/her exceptionalism and expect a happy response from the hierarchy. In short, if you want to be an ELCA pastor, and DL is the ONLY way for you to start your studies, check to see if your synod (local jurisdiction in the ELCA) has a correlated seminary. Then check to see what DL if any that seminary offers. If it is acceptable to your synod to do DL at another ELCA seminary, check that one out, too. Get clearance for all that you do in writing before you do it. I would not be able to recommend one ELCA seminary over against another, since all are at a very great remove from my own denomination's view of Lutheran theology, and my knowledge of specific schools is not very current. If you have a particular school in mind, I will be happy to share what I know of it, but that may not be a whole lot. Your first post indicated either Episcopal or Lutheran. If you are still making up your mind on denominational affiliation, be aware that either of these denominations will require that you be a lay member of one of their parishes for a certain length of time before embarking on the seminary/ordination approval process. If the recent agreement between the two denominations makes this transferable, you MUST determine this in writing from the responsible church officials (bishop, denominational HQ ??). The last thing I want to do is discourage you from using DL. Church bureaucracies, especially in mainline denominations, are full of people who are as touchy as they are routinized. My advice to you to conform as much as possible on procedures and structures is well-meant. I do not mean to suppress your individuality or to be insensitive to the practical issues that lead you to want to do an MDiv by DL. There is, after all, a place for legitimate obedience to church authority; bucking the system in which you desire to function may not only be imprudent--I assure you it IS that--but theologically unwise. So if, and only if, your church authorities give you explicit written OK to do DL--go for it! Otherwise, bite the bullet, make the sacrifices, and begin to make practical arrangements for on-site seminary study as soon as you have clearance from the appropriate church authorities to do so. You have my best wishes as you explore your vocation. Janko
