Video for July 3rd, 2025
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
I’m recording this as we begin our ordination retreat here at the Palace. This weekend we’ll be ordaining eight deacons and five priests to serve us in our diocesan family. Their journeys have been many and varied, but they are joined by a common sense of vocation and desire to give their lives in service to the Lord.
With all the ritual that surrounds this event, we can be put them on a pedestal. They will go into their parishes with a certain expectation, both in the character they will demonstrate and the selfless service they offer. The most stinging rebuke a cleric can receive is, ‘call yourself a vicar’ in response to a perceived sleight. Parishes have memories of the time there were three times the number of clergy there are now. A visiting schedule to every house in the parish was stretching then; It is unrealistic now, not least because a lot of people in our parishes don’t want to be visited in any case! There are stories from the Victorian period of people hiding when they saw the clergy coming. Not because they didn’t like their clergy, but because a visit every two weeks was probably a bit much! Francis Kilvert, the Victorian clerical diarist, was the curate of Clyro (i.e. he had a boss) near Hay-on-Wye when the population was 217. It’s no wonder Victorian clergy had so much time for butterfly and plant collecting.
If we are to be faithful to Paul’s vision of the church in Ephesians, Chapter four, there is probably a sweet spot in clerical provision. Too many, and we can sit back and let the clergy do our spiritual stuff for us. The word vicar is derived from vicarious after all. Too few, and people can feel like ‘sheep without a shepherd’. When the apostles in the book of Acts were challenged that there was a differential developing in the pastoral care offered to different groups, their solution was to set apart deacons to do that practical work so they could devote themselves to the work of evangelism, teaching and prayer. Stephen, the first martyr, was one of those deacons. One of the primary calls on clergy these days is that sort of talent spotting. Paul talks about, “Christ himself giving the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature”. This passage is a challenge to all of us to take responsibility for the spiritual side of living out the faith, both learning to feed ourselves spiritually and looking outward to serve. The public nature of ordained ministry can lead us to think it’s just about maintaining the institution by providing church services. The quip shared with clergy that, ‘you only work on Sundays’ has worn very thin for me for many years. Even as a vicar, Sunday was my quietest day. The rest of the week was in part preparation for Sunday, but the pastoral care, visiting, schools work, social engagement, prayer, administration and the bewildering variety of other tasks clergy do filled the rest of the week very well.
I would hope that clergy and PCCs have conversations about their expectations of each other. It is the frequent mismatch, especially when those expectations are not articulated, that can lead to serious conflict. I hope those are the sorts of conversations those who are being ordained this week will have.
But for today I want to rejoice with them in the privilege of being called into the Lord’s service. Their joy and sacrifice is an inspiration to me. The Church when it is working even remotely as it should points beyond itself to the Lord who is the source of life, meaning significance and purpose. They have a role in opening our eyes to this truth and fostering the formation of those sorts of communities of love. My prayer is that we work together with them to make Jesus known to a broken and hurting world that desperately needs him.
+Richard