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Some Introductory Words

It just so happens that the day we are writing this introduction is the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church’s year. This year, the Old Testament reading is from Jeremiah 23. It tells of God’s judgement on the leaders of Israel, who had failed to serve God’s people, and then speaks the promise of God:

Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. (Jeremiah 23:3–4)

The prophecy goes on to say that the way God will come to his people to lead them in his paths will be through the righteous one, the one who will reign over the people of God, embodying the presence and purposes of God among them.

This is a vision of the Church of Jesus Christ – a people gathered around the saving God, a people among whom God rules as the righteous one who gives himself for the life of the world. And it is a people among whom some are called to serve after the manner of this God, in the pattern of Jesus Christ, to care for God’s people so that they become all that God longs for them to be – a community that bears fruit and multiplies.

The people of God are called to make music for the world. It is a music that sounds freedom in all the corners of the earth. It is the music of Jesus Christ – God’s gift of life for the world. The pastors of God’s people are called to help the Church enthral the world with the sound of Christ. Sometimes they are like the person who sweeps the floor making the place ready for the performance. Other times they are like the restorer, who skilfully repairs the instruments when they have been damaged. All of the time they are like the conductor whose overriding passion is to draw the best sound from each person, and to bring the sounds of each uniquely gifted person into an ordered whole, so that together, in time and in tune, the people of God can play the score of God’s mercy, truth and goodness to a world battered by its own noise but starved of the sound of God.

And this will be the sort of music making where everybody plays, where there is scope for individuality and spontaneity within the rhythm of the whole. It will be an infectious and generative activity that will put a new song into the hearts of all who hear and place an instrument in their hands, inviting them to join in the music of the mystery and magnificence of God’s love for the world.

This is a book about that sort of pastor. It a book for those who want to think more about the priestly ministry of leading and shaping, guiding and forming God’s priestly people.

Over recent years there have been major changes in the ordained ministry. It was not long ago that those training for ordination were mainly young men destined to work in parishes as stipendiary clergy for the rest of their lives. Today things are very different. No longer are colleges filled exclusively with young men. Instead colleges, courses and schemes train men and women of all ages for a variety of priestly vocations in hospitals, prisons, schools, colleges, religious communities and the armed forces, as well as the familiar parishes, newer team ministries and pioneering situations. Large numbers of people have a vocation to self-supporting ministry, often as ministers in secular employment whose main focus of ministry is not the parish but the workplace. Ordained Local Ministers represent the understanding of stability of ministry in one place rather than deployability, life experience rather than youth is often the gift that they bring to their ministry. And so the list goes on. We have trained people from and for all these ways of ministry, and ourselves have backgrounds that are not limited to parish ministry. As we have tried to uncover the roots and shape and fruit of priestly ministry, we have found ourselves drawing heavily from the writings of previous generations, but we have in mind that the context today has changed from theirs and that new perspectives as well as tried and tested wisdom belong together.

When we were approached to write about being a priest, one of the first things we realized was how different we are from each other, and therefore how different our own living out of the priestly vocation has been. Our experiences of family life (with one of us single and the other married), education and work, church and vocation – not to mention gender – are all different. At the same time we share many things in common, not least that for some years we worked together in theological education on an ecumenical training scheme. As we say at the beginning of the first chapter, there is no one way of being a priest and we are ourselves living proof of this. Although we have written this book together, our distinctive voices come through at times and we have not hesitated to use some personal illustrations. Christopher is responsible for most of chapters 1–4 and 10, Rosalind for most of chapters 5–6 and 8–9, and we shared the writing of chapter 7. Since we are both ordained in the Anglican Church (one in England, the other in America), that is the context and focus of our writing, but we work in ecumenical situations and value deeply other church traditions. We quote from authors from many different traditions in the book and hope that it will have something to offer to God’s people in the rich variety of church life, even if some of the details and language are noticeably Anglican.

We are grateful to those who have helped us: colleagues with whom we work and from whom we have learnt at STETS, Salisbury OLM Scheme and Ridley Hall (and especially Paul Weston for advice with Chapter 10), our other friends and our families for their generosity and support, Christine Smith and Anna Hardman of Canterbury Press for their encouragement and patience. Finally, our thanks must go to those we have helped to prepare for ordained ministry and who have done so much to inspire us. We are excited about the prospects for the Church by the quality of these people and to them we gladly dedicate this short book.

Christopher Cocksworth

Rosalind Brown

The Feast of Christ the King