Archive for the ‘ Formation ’ Category

Evangelical Diversified

A huge part of my motivation and inspiration for research comes out of my own story and journey as a follower of Jesus. The first church I went to was a large town centre Baptist Church that was evangelical and charismatic. Since I came from a non-church background, the doctrine and practice that flowed from [ READ MORE ]

Anglo-catholic and evangelical ‘mystery’

This week at Ripon College Cuddesdon [check out new website] has been our Themed Study Week. For me that meant a week of sacraments.One of the funniest, frustrating and profound moments was towards the end of an hour or so worming our way through a history of ‘transubtitution’. This, as you may know, is the [ READ MORE ]

The Likeable Vicar

and occasionally his demeanour would suggest inapproachability. This is not actually the case. This is a line of a reference written about me as part of application for training as a priest in the Church of England. I can’t deny it! With a more positive spin, my end of first year in training report has [ READ MORE ]

Money, Money, Money

Money is a huge issue in ministry: I mean personal money. We have recently become debt free for the first time since entering full-time ministry 9 years ago. This has been both because of some generous people and a lot of hard work earning extra money and scraping by with bear minimum [techniques and examples [ READ MORE ]

Goals of Ministry

Most of my experience in church ministry has involved a reasonable amount of projects. At the Baptist church, the youth ministry was a huge programme, not that relational engagement was low on the agenda but with 250 under 18′s at it’s peek you need programmes. Programmes always bring goals and deadlines for preparation and activity. [ READ MORE ]

The Place of the Building

we shape our buildings then our buildings shape us I spent some time with the verger this morning. The vergers job, it seems to me, is to prepare the building for worship and generally oversee the daily operations of the building for those who use it, residents and visitors alike. Alongside that there are some [ READ MORE ]

Minding the Gap

After being involved in leading the service in some way or another I have always had the habit of standing by the door as people leave. This is obviously to allow people to interact with the content of the service and of course to put some human contact into the sometimes detached sense of being [ READ MORE ]

The Empty Diary

Once I had made a move towards ordained ministry I began to take more notice of what the clergy on the staff were doing: funerals, weddings and services. I remember a conversation with the curate about funerals and what is involved once the church received a call from the funeral directors or family. What struck [ READ MORE ]

Entering the Emotional Cauldron

The Funeral and Thanksgiving service of Diana Welch happened this morning. I attended and observed. During this service a very clear distinction between the ministry I have been part of and the ministry of a vicar struck me again. The vicar gets thrown into the emotional cauldron of the parish in a way that I [ READ MORE ]

Administrating the Priesthood

I was with David, the vicar, this morning talking through the diary for the next two weeks considering the fixed points and what I might be able to attend and get involved in. As an aside David tells me a little about the administrator. Quite apart from who she is, her name is Kim, the [ READ MORE ]