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The Board for Theological Education (BTE) was established by canon at the General Convention of 1967 after concern over the decline in candidates for the ministry in the early 1960s caused the Division on Christian Ministries to call for a comprehensive study of the matter. The focus of the Board was to study the needs and trends of theological education and make recommendations. It was to assist the institutions undertaking the education of future clergy, assist in the enlistment and selection of candidates for ministry, promote the continuing education of both the clergy and the laity, and finally to seek support and funding for the entire enterprise.

The Board for Theological Education met formally four to five times a year, and was composed of fifteen members representing bishops, clergy, and laity. In 1997, General Convention voted to merge the Board of Theological Education into the newly-created Standing Commission on Ministry.

Originally called St. Stephen’s Normal and Theological School, Bishop Payne Divinity School (Petersburg, Virginia) was founded in 1878 as a branch seminary of the Virginia Theological Seminary. Its first graduate was James S. Russell, who went on to found St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School in nearby Lawrenceville. When the school was chartered by the State of Virginia in 1884, it was renamed Bishop Payne Divinity and Industrial School in honor of the Rt. Rev. John Payne, the first Bishop of Liberia.

Enrollment decreased dramatically in the 1890s following several canonical actions by the church that marginalized their African American congregations. The name was changed again in 1910 to Bishop Payne Divinity School when the school was given the power to confer the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. Maintaining an adequate budget to operate and improve the school and competing with white seminaries which began to admit black students were constant challenges that led to the decision to close the school in 1949. Its assets were transferred in 1953 to the Virginia Theological Seminary for the purpose of recruiting and educating African Americans.

The Associated Parishes of Liturgy and Mission (APLM), originally called Associated Parishes, was formed in 1946 as "A fellowship of clergy and laity interested in advancing the principles of the Liturgical Movement in the life of the Episcopal Church.” The program was initially carried out by distributing printed publications useful in the parish church and by holding Liturgical Conferences throughout the nation.

Membership was by invitation only until 1963, when it became open to anyone. It was at this time that the name changed from Associated Parishes to Associated Parishes of Liturgy and Mission.

APLM members were instrumental in drafting and promoting the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, reestablishing the Eucharist’s primacy in worship and parish life, and championing Baptism as the foundation for Christian ministry. The organization continues to “develop and promote worship that shapes, defines, and empowers the church to live in the midst of the world as a sign, foretaste, and instrument of the promised and immanent reign of God.”

The American Church Institute for Negroes, begun in 1906 and renamed as the American Church Institute in 1961, was the institutional Church’s response to the alarming disparity between educational opportunities for African Americans and privileged whites within the church. The organization’s strategy was to train African Americans to be successful tradesmen, businessmen, teachers, and clergy who would return to their communities and spread the benefits of their education to others.

The ACI made it a practice to give support to only one school in any state, although exceptions were made for Virginia and North Carolina. Six other southern states were homes to the ACI schools (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and South Carolina), and one school in Texas received funds from ACI but was never officially brought under its oversight. The eligibility criteria for a school to qualify for ACI support included that the school be located in the area of greatest concentration of African Americans in its state and that it receive financial support from all of the dioceses in its state.

The ACI was formally dissolved in 1967 after a reevaluation of the usefulness of its mission in light of integration.