reflections on ministry after 50 years ........

Ministry?

The man from the .........

The man who offers .........

The Tax Man ........

Or the man who is the minister? What is ministry? How is it defined and offered, delivered and received?

After 50 years I might, should, have some insight?

50 years ago I would have defined it as being amongst, being with and supporting people who were in some way struggling, either with health or with faith or with the challenges that life has presented them.

So pastoral visiting, hospital visiting, prison visiting, attending meetings, celebrating the Eucharist, hearing confessions, each of these were part of what overall ministry meant.

In one parish I was told how wonderful it was, after a long vacancy to see the lights in the Vicarage on. I pointed out that an adaptor with a time switch would've been cheaper and probably more reliable.

Now it seems that Ministry is more complicated. There are more meetings, there is safeguarding, there are DBS checks and there is more time spent in front of a computer.

When I was simply a retired Priest caring for a disabled partner, with the one heroic exception I was not especially aware of much pastoral support for me or my partner being extended by the Church. I am glad to say that in my new retirement job in a new Diocese not only I but members of the parish where I 'minister' have been supported by the Bishop, both practically and prayerfully.

But I was also aware of the way in which people commented about clergy from the Deanery where I lived that they 'spent too much time in front of the computer'.

I try to make it my business to ensure that that is not the case in Shotley Fields.

It is however interesting that the congregation here is very much a 'one off' insofar that it is largely made up of people from outwith the parish boundaries.

So ministry does involve a far amount of driving and in order to maximise pastoral contact it is good to become involved in activities from carpet bowling to the Wednesday walking group to occasionally offering to help with the bar in the parish hall.

Each activity is of itself recreational and helpful but at the same time is, as I defined it earlier, 'being amongst'.

The Church of England is awash with initiatives to keep the holed Ark afloat. House for Duty is one such initiative alongside focal leadership, non stipendiary ministers and a variety of other approaches.

All I can do is, like St Barnabas, try to be an encourager, in these days ministry has to be the work of the whole church, lay and ordained, as we seek to keep the rumour of God alive.

So the true leadership rests with the members of the congregation and there are days when all I seem to do is, by means of an encouraging word, or an encouraging email, or an encouraging text or 'phone call, just give the plates a little spin and hope to keep the 'show on the road'.

As one of the cards I received congratulating me on my 50th anniversary of ordination, 'bet you didn't think that you'd still be preaching after 50 years' and that is true but then realistically 50 years ago my main hope was that the church would still be sufficiently solvent to pay my pension when I retired.

So far, so good on that score .........




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