Why have I written this book? In addition to it being a reflection for me, and a guide for those exploring ordained ministry, it is also a personal plea…
The genesis for it came in 2005 when I was at the beginning of the Selection Process[1]. In Chelmsford, the diocese in which I underwent this process, individuals are asked to research and write a paper about ordained ministry in the Church of England as part of the process – many Chelmsford candidates refer to it as the ‘Priesthood Project’.
The whole concept was a real challenge for me, as it is for many. Mainly as my ‘Free’[2], and ‘low Anglican’[3] church experience had caused me to swallow the theological concept of, ‘the priesthood of all believers’, wholesale. The early church seemed to allow any Christian to be, ‘a minister of the Gospel’, and in that sense, ‘we are all priests’ – or, a ‘priesthood of all believers’. The upshot was that I held a very negative view of any organization or person advocating something contrary to the ‘priesthood of all believers’, including the Anglican Church.
Incidentally, I do wholeheartedly believe in the description of the people of God as, a ‘Royal Priesthood’[4]. But this is a far richer and more nuanced idea than what can often be reduced to, ‘church as democracy’; a concept which I had come to believe was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So it was challenging enough to consider that God may be calling me towards ordination in the Church of England. But now, here I was in 2005, with all that history of ideas and experience starting work on my ‘Priesthood Project’. A puzzle. I knew from that outset that if I was to be ordained I could end up standing before a bishop making certain promises, reflecting the Anglican theology of priesthood. To that end, for integrity’s sake I felt I needed to research the concept thoroughly, so that I didn’t just accept it as a means to an end, but could own it for myself. I had to face the theological challenge of, ‘a priesthood of all believers’ vs individuals being recognised as priests.
Why then is this book a personal plea? And to whom?
My initial engagement with the subject was like a conversion experience, in which I journeyed from being a sceptical atheist, to becoming utterly convinced by the value, validity and potential of priesthood. The word I used for that process was ‘reimagining’. The whole notion of ordained ministry had been reimagined in me, as I came to think about it in a new and fresh way.
Much has changed since my initial work and the spark of an idea for a book. I have been ordained for nearly ten years, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge. The world and church have also changed beyond recognition. Essentially, I believe that the issues are now much bigger and more urgent than even a decade ago. So this is a humble and personal plea, to whoever will listen to my belief that many of the fundamental issues around vocational calling in the Church of England need to be completely overhauled and rethought. A significant and creative reimagining needs to take place.
“…character is of much greater value than competence. I am alarmed at the apparent way in which the quality of those being selected to train for ministry is being sacrificed on the altar of quantity“.
This now expanded book is a plea for the issues to be reimagined in terms of personal possibilities (Section One). That is, to recognise that God calls each of us, in different ways and to different roles. But to also recognise that in regard to calling, character is of much greater value than competence. I am alarmed at the apparent way in which the quality of those being selected to train for ministry is being sacrificed on the altar of quantity. A panic response to dwindling clergy numbers and church attendance which opens the doors very wide to potential new ministers is shortsighted and potentially costly in the long run. There is a need to up the bar, to reimagine, to think again, about the need for character to trump competence in regard to personal possibilities.
‘How do I maintain a sense of pastoral vocation in the middle of a community of people who are hiring me to do religious jobs?’
Eugene Peterson
It is a plea for the issues to be reimagined theologically (Section Two). That is, in terms of overcoming prejudices in order to embrace the value of priesthood as a ‘Biblical’ and valid concept. For some I will not be going nearly far enough on this point I’m sure, and it will be suggested that I am just restating the obvious basics. One of the problems seems to be that we have drifted so far from the basics that they need to be restated. There is an immense expectation and pressure, placed upon ourselves as well as by others, right across the churchmanship spectrum, for priests to be providers of ‘religious services’. A quote Tweeted on behalf of Eugene Peterson expresses this well, ‘[h]ow do I maintain a sense of pastoral vocation in the middle of a community of people who are hiring me to do religious jobs?’ In Reimagining Priesthood I advocate a radical reappraisal, where radical means to ‘return to the root’, the foundations.
‘That is, for priesthood and pioneering to become synonymous’.
Thirdly it is a plea for the issues to be reimagined ecclesiologically and missionally (Section Three). That is, for priesthood and pioneering to become synonymous. Where the latter is not relegated to a special designation but should be at the very heart of our understanding of what it means to be an ordained minister in the Church of England. To that end we have to prioritise, ‘going to’ rather than ‘waiting for’, mission rather than maintenance, and kingdom rather than church. Reimagining Pioneering is a description of my experience of trying to do just that. As such it is a call to recognise that we must all now live according to the beat of that drum, there is really no other option.
They are the broad hopes for the book. It is not a blueprint for anything, it is just the personal perspective of an ordinary minister in the Church of England. Are they new thoughts on these subjects? Probably not. Are they helpful ones? I really hope so.
The word
‘vocation’ comes from the Latin word voca,
meaning voice. More than anything, I
hope and pray that the whole book will enable you to hear the voice of Jesus,
the irresistible Caller. And as a result
that you will move, ‘further up and further in’[5] on your journey with
Him.
[1] Individuals and dioceses refer to this in a variety of ways including: the Selection or Discernment process, being in discernment etc.
[2] That is, a Christian denomination or independent church separate or ‘free’ from the state.
[3] That is, an Anglican church whose worship life only lightly reflects the traditions of formal Church of England liturgy and practice. A ‘high’ church would obviously be the very opposite – and there is a whole spectrum of variants between the two.
[4] 1 Peter 2:9 – I will unpack much more of what this means in Section Two.
[5] Lewis, 2009: 198