Mike's musings

Ministry to the Samaritan

Got up a 0800 - a serious lie-in. Then to Great Leighs church - which is nowhere near the village! - for the baptism of Lenny, Carolyn's second child. Her first, Tommy, died just a few months old, and they had a poem and prayer after the baptism part of the service, which felt entirely appropriate.

On the way back it was still raining, after a serious rain storm earlier, and a big pick-up truck in front of me spun around 225 degrees whilst negotiating a roundabout. I was rather glad to have left sufficient room. The guy seemed surprised, but hadn't hit anything, so I carried on.

As I drove through Gosfield at 30mph or less, at the front of a line of traffic, I came across a man staggering along the road, in the opposite lane, making no attempt to get to either side. After a second's thought, I stopped. First of all, I made sure that the cars from behind were slowing down, and wouldn't hit him, but he was staggering across to the other side of the road, too, so I called the police, and carried on walking after him in the rain. I then tried to convince him to stop and sit down for a while. He did indeed stop for a bit, and I tried to cajole him into sitting down. He guessed that I'd called the police, and explained that he didn't want to get into trouble. I explained that I didn't want to get him into trouble, but that they might be able to get him home. He talked about going home to get some heroin to kill himself. He kept on walking out of the main village, where the speed limit goes up to 40mph and people often drive faster than that. He kept swearing at me, refusing to stay out of the road, saying he wanted to die. He crossed to the other side of the road, looked like he was going to throw himself off the bridge into the river. He started walking again. I tried to stay close enough that I'd be able to reach him if a car looked like it might be about to hit him, but far enough away that he couldn't get me, particularly if he had a knife. He told me that he'd rather die than speak to the police. I called them again and asked them not to use blues and twos (lights and sirens) when they came. In the end, after about three quarters of a mile, a police came by. He knew him, and I handed over responsibility after explaining what I'd done, and what he'd said.

As I walked back, I came across a woman who'd seen me stop, and had turned her car round, stopped it, and then walked after me, I discovered, trying to slow the cars down so that I wouldn't get hit either. We talked about what we'd done, and I told her that I'm training to become a priest. "Maybe this was God giving you part of your final exam," she said. Maybe it was. I suspect that she wasn't a Christian, just from what she said, but when we parted, I said, "If God asks, you passed, too." She seemed to like that.

Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing. This was one of those times. I was careful of my safety. I avoided the traffic, I kept well enough away from the man that I wasn't in danger from him. I phoned the police. I had a walk in the rain.

But it was a good walk, and for the right reasons.

Labels: ministry

Aunty Kitty's funeral

(backposting) We left around 0900, and got to Liverpool a couple of hours later. We met at Karen and Paul's house: I'd met him before, but not sure about her. They're lovely, the two kids we met were both great, too.

When the funeral cortege arrived, Jo - to whom we'd explained about the funeral being about saying goodbye to Kitty - had lots of questions. Really good questions for a three year old, I thought. She wanted to know what was in the box (coffin): "just Kitty's body: she doesn't need it anymore". "Why doesn't she need it anymore?" "When will we see her body?" "Why's that lady walking in front of the car?" This about the funeral director, who, it being Liverpool, walked the first 100 yards and the last 100 yards of the journey in front of the hearse. I explained about tradition, and Moo and I talked about the importance of ritual. Much of the funeral ritual that's common in Liverpool is pretty alien to me, and doesn't really do much for me, but it _does_ for other people, particularly Kate in this case, and if that's what's needed to help people say goodbye, then that's fine. It was really helpful for me, actually, from a ministerial point of view, to learn this.

The funeral was quick, and Kate managed admirably with the eulogy, and we headed off to the cemetery for the burial. The free church minister who'd taken the funeral said a few words at the graveside, a few people said a few words, and Jo - who, like all of the kids, was a paragon of good behaviour throughout - blew some bubbles over the grave, which was lovely. I'd been pretty anti having her put anything in the grave: despite what I've written above about ritual, I don't like the imagery of putting things in a grave as if they're needed, or might be going somewhere.

We had a meal afterwards, and then Moo drove us to East Leaek with Kate in the back with the girls. I had a bit of a sleep, had a cup of tea, said goodbye to the girls, and drove home. Pretty tired when I arrived.

Labels: family, funeral, ministry

Writing

Wrote a major report for work today, and another 2,200 words of essay: I'm within 600 words now, and have just a conclusion to put together, so that's about right. I think I'm very pleased with it, but I'm absolutely on my last legs and off to bed soon, so can't really tell.

Had a good chat over lunch with Tim, the area CME (Continuing Ministerial Education) Officer, who will be overseeing a fair bit of my training over the next 3-4 years. Got on very well, and we've got lots in common in terms of background and academic interests, so I'm very pleased about that, too.

Got to stop now, as my typing accuracy is going to pot...

Labels: essay, ministry, work

Email and finalisations

(backposting) I spent most of the day sorting out email. Not just processing it, but getting work email to a point where I could use it again. Work has move away from Lotus Notes to Exchange, and I've had various problems getting it to work (I'm using Linux, of course, just in case my life were too easy), from accessing the server properly (which I just about sorted last week) to importing all my old emails. I'm used to having these hosted online, but that's now not possible, so I had to jump through some hoops go get them into Evolution. Specifically, import them into Thunderbird on Windows, flatten the folder hierarchy, copy all the files onto my Linux partition and then move them back into the right hierarchy again. I'm very pleased to say that I discovered that you don't need to import each folder individually in Evolution - a (long) Internet search led me to the discovery that if you put them in Evolution's mail hierarchy, it'll work things out for itself, which it does pretty well.

We (Moo and I) had a meeting with John, my training incumbent-to-be, and Hilary, the SSM coordinator, in the evening. It was much less fraught than it might have been - Moo was initially quite anti - and we got pretty much everything sorted out, including my working agreement. I'm looking forward to meeting the CME (Continuing Ministerial Education) officer for the diocese on Friday.

Labels: geekery, ministry

Working agreement

(backposting) I had a meeting with the local SSM (NSM) coordinator and my incumbent, John, this evening. We discussed my working agreement. This is really important, as it's what governs what I do in terms of ministry for the next 3-4 years. Lots of discussion. The main issue is how I fit family (and work, but mainly family) around the ministry commitments. Given the amount of work that both Moo and I are doing at the moment, the fact that Moo's not generally a church-goer and the age of the girls, this is difficult. Hilary (the local SSM coordinator) was very helpful and creative, and we've got some ideas. But it's difficult.

Labels: ministry, Moo

More ministry thoughts

(backposting) Getting the "what I did today" section out of the way, I made it to the 0800 at St Mary's, Rempstone, then we went swimming with the girls, took them to the park, tired them out, ate supper, and drove back home! Straight to sleep from both of them!

On the ministry side, Gary commented on the last post:

Maybe we need to think through what it means being a priest in a workplace. I have opportunities to meet people in my work that I'd never meet in a stipendiary role - IT people, counter staff, loads of people of other faiths and from other nationalities - it's a different sphere of action, and the role is maybe harder to define and much more nuanced, but it's there.

I think there are two sides here. One is being a "Minister in Secular Employment" - an MSE, where you're licensed partly to your work, and will have an agreement - maybe contractual - with your employer. The other is being a minister who's also employed. That's what I'll be, and, from memory, what Gary will be as well. You have to decide how lightly to wear the collar, as it were. Some might actually wear a dog collar: for me, this will be rare, though there will be occasions - such as going out for a meal - when I might wear one to give people the chance to discuss it, and have a laugh (which will, indubitably, lead to discussion and then pastoral work...). Others may let it be know that they're ordained, but not let it out much, and others will have the opportunity to make a fairly big deal of it. And the same, of course, can go for lay people (except about wearing the collar, in most cases!).

I'm a little conflicted about how often I will wear a collar, to be honest. I think I'll try both ways on planes, and see how people react. Same for hotel bars, etc.. It's going to be interesting.

Over lunch, I had a supervision with Keith, and we talked a lot about where my ministry's going. How prophetic will it be? He says that he thinks of me as having an evangelical ministry - though he thinks what I'll refer to as "the E-word" is better applied to me as an adjective than a noun - and I'm beginning to see things this way, too.

Labels: ministry, work

What's being a priest about?

I had an interesting conversation with a priest recently who was complaining about having to spend a full half hour talking about clearing leaves out of gutters during a buildings and maintenance meeting that he was attending: a subject about which he had nothing to say, and no interest. This meant he got back home very late, after a 14 hour day. Where's the priestliness in that? Where does it say that he should be using his time like this?

I was saying that I will have almost the opposite issue: I'll only have the chance, on the whole, to do the more "obviously priestly" bits. He was saying that maybe as an SSM (Self-Supporting Minister), I'll have something to teach people about what's important about being a priest. But I responded that I think there are problems there, too, and lots of them. Yes, I'll do services, and preaching, and home groups, maybe, and these are important: but when will I get the chance to have chats with people in cafés, talk in queues in the bakery, make hospital visits and all the rest? I think that there will be frustrations on both sides, and yes, we'll both have things to teach each other.

On the other hand, travelling has its upsides, too. I had a fascinating talk with a woman on the plane to Barcelona, Anya, who was saying that she envies me my faith. We had a good discussion, in which I explained that faith doesn't always mean certainty, and can - should, I'd say - include time for doubt. And it was clear to me - and I said so - that if she is ready to say that she envies faith, then she's already what some would call a "seeker". So, we talked. Did she walk off the plane looking for a church to go to? No, but she's not averse to taking her son to church. I think she now sees that the love she shares with her family can be seen by some - certainly by me and most Christians - as God-given, and I don't think she rejected that out of hand. She met someone, I hope, who wasn't entirely different to her, and reasonable, not weird, and talked in ways she could understand and relate to her. That's enough for me.

Labels: faith, family, ministry, priest

Spiritual direction

Work continues busy, but I also had a session of spiritual direction. I've recently changed spiritual directors - not because we didn't get on, but due to problems with clashes of commitments - and I'm getting a lot from my new one, who's called Rosemary. We've agreed that I'll re-read Ecclesiastes, and also try to get hold of another book, which we were struggling to identify!

One of the things that came out of the meeting was a great deal of thought on my side about the extent to which I'm beginning to understand the prophetic nature of my ministry. More about this in the future, I think, but I do feel a call to stand up and be counted - as a liberal. Which is kind of rare.

Labels: bible, ministry, spirituality

EasyJet Ministry

(backposting) Got into Helsinki 10 minutes early at 0125 local, and got to my hotel a little fater 0200. My boss was _well_ impressed to discover that I was phoning him around 2 in the morning local time! Stuff to do, and I was in a taxi with nothing else to do, so why not?

Took a while to get to sleep, and up at 0840 for a breakfast with Harri, a colleague. 3 interesting meetings, and then back on a plane, taking off around 1855, arriving at 1955 local: 3 hours in the plane. I slept for about an hour, and then woke up.

Next to me was David (hi, David!), a photographer. I asked him about his book, he told me about it, and then noticed mine (Tim Gorringe's formidable Furthering Humanity: A Theology of Culture). He asked me about it, and I told him that I'm training for ordination as a priest. What followed was a fascinating discussion, which we dubbed "EasyJet Ministry", although we weren't on an EasyJet flight, and EasyJet would probably dislike the term. But it sums it up: I quite often have discussions about ministry, church and theology on these trips. You have an hour or two tops to discuss where you're coming from, and to talk about your beliefs - both of you.

David's "not a churchgoer", but he has a strong belief in a purposeful creator, and he thanks Him/Her/It pretty much every day for the beauty he sees around him and for the life he lives. He's turned off by churches ("I think 'cold, uncomfortable, unwelcoming'"), and his view of priests is as being out of touch and unlike him. We discussed where I'm coming from, and how I feel strongly that part of my ministry (alongside this kind of interaction) is to be doubting, clear, and honest about my faith to people like me. It was interesting to see how little - but how much - someone from outside the church knew about the Church of England. We discussed doctrine (including justification by faith alone, one of my favourite topics!), Hell (not literal, thanks), the authority of scripture, tradition and experience, and a variety of other topics, including architecture and music. I think that he's now more open to the church as a possibility for him, and I hope he'll be reading this blog. If so, David, please comment from your point of view!

David was very excited to hear about what we're doing in SecondLife, and alternative expressions of mission. Maybe he (and others like him) can be prevailed upon to visit the cathedral we've built, and maybe even attend a service.

Anyway - I felt that I'd been honest, and that being so had at least helped David to realise that the church can be at least a bit relevant to him and people like him (and me). I felt affirmed and strengthened in my ministry. Thanks be to God.

And a baby!

D had a baby today: Lotte. I found out via an MMS once I got off the plane. 5lb, healthy. Hallelujah!

Labels: baby, ministry, theology, travel, work

Death of a priest

People die. Priests die. And sometimes, priests get murdered. Attacks on priests are on the rise. I personally know a priest who thought he was going to die, after being threatened by a mentally ill man with a pistol. Twice, and the same man. It's sad that part of our training involves advice on how to look after yourself as a minister.

It's an occupational hazard and, as the assistant bishop says in the report, "any murder is terrible, but the murder of a priest is almost unthinkable because a priest stands for peaceable things". But that, or course, is part of the danger. Those who preach peace are a danger and a threat to those who don't believe in it, or are disturbed, or ill. This is clearer in parts of the world where Christians are persecuted, but it can hit at home, as well. Please pray for his family, friends and parishioners.

Labels: death, ministry, priest