An Ordinal for hillwalking

The Governing Body of the Church in Wales will spend time tomorrow discussing a report on Anglican ordained ministry in contemporary Wales, Faithful Stewards in a Changing Church.

The report frames itself as a hike: a collection of essays that help us “to see from where we have come, to take stock of where we find ourselves in the present, and try to discern where we should be heading.” It tries to offer a reflective experience as opposed to blueprint, or — what’s in fact needed — a new Ordinal.

The report is enriching, quirky, a little stubbornly nostalgic in parts (that faithfulness, while change all around I see…), probably a little too univocally liberal, intelligent, and insightful.

That said, I am not a hillwalker. To this day, I harbour some resentment at being dragged up Snowdon as a child. And my partner prides himself at never having sat through a whole Ordination Service, such is their long-windedness — making them emblematic of typical Anglican reflections on ordained ministry.

So, in the spirit of these days of “necessary journeys” only, here are my brief thoughts on Anglican ordained ministry in contemporary Wales. (I’m grateful to colleagues who’ve helped with thinking, without wanting to make them liable for its outputs.)

Before pulling on the hiking books

I have long been bemused by the numbing complexity of discernment selection criteria. When it comes to discerning a vocation to ordained ministry, I wonder whether less is more, and clarity is kindness.

In conversation with colleagues, we’ve found this simple triple set of questions for candidates to be useful.

1. Call

Do I understand the contemporary ministry that will be mine and in which I’ll share? Am I sure that my understanding isn’t romantic or out-of date? (This is a sharper question for those of us who encountered the Church in our salad days, and in leafier climes than the current parochial climate in most of England and Wales.)

2. Gift

Do I have the emotional intelligence to minister to people? Am I good enough at absorbing, navigating, charming, bouncing back, maintaining a professional façade, not putting people off by my quirks, and being loyal? (I struggle here — I wince at how angular I used to be; I’m still, frequently, too much of an introvert in an extrovert’s game.)

3. Apostolicity

Am I able to analyse, synthesize, plan, convince, sell, and lead? Am I going to be comfortable in a role that isn’t any longer about inheriting, preserving and passing on, but about shaping, reforming and growing?

Equipment for the trek

Selection (recruitment, as we’d think of it in other spheres of life) is crucial — more so for me than initial training and formation. But ongoing development — the continuing nurturing of ministerial knowledge, skill and experience — is also vital.

Again, a tight, defined “curriculum” here — even a description of areas of aptitude — are hard to come by.

In reflecting with colleagues recently on leadership, this is how I’d now describe the equipment required for a fruitful contemporary Anglican ordained ministry.

1. Deep, spiritual leadership

There’s a Welsh-language saying about somebody who’s recovered their equilibrium after a time of fragility — “yn ôl yn fy nghoed” — back in their trees. I think it means somebody who has achieved in their self-understanding and demeanour something of the organic solidity and flexibility of an oak tree — somebody who can preside, over themselves and others — somebody who has conviction but isn’t defensive, is relational without being overly reactive to the external. That oak tree image captures something of the spiritual leadership to be nurtured in contemporary ordained ministry — a mode of presiding that isn’t anxious, petty or austere, but grounded, confident, clear and connected — the Jesus Christ of John 8:7–11 and John 21:5–13.

2. Immanent, sacramental and apologetic leadership

I emerge from the pandemic more attached than ever before to the sacramental — to abundant signs of overwhelming grace; and one of the few unique privileges of ordained ministry is presiding at celebrations of the sacraments — it’s the vital completion and fulfilment of deep, spiritual leadership.

Grace needs also be explained — and ordained ministerial theological understanding is to gained and shaped for an apologetic end; in preaching, in shaping liturgy, in pastoral encounters and in presiding, the faith is to be explained and its mystery to be presented, compellingly and coherently. This is the fruit of theological learning for the ordained, not the personal theological insight that flows from the mastery of New Testament Greek; and nurturing the theological skills for such a ministry is a delightful, life-long task, not to be confined to the timespan of a pre-ordination course.

3. Managing the community

Ministry has always been about people management — enabling, directing and cajoling others as they make their contribution to the Church’s ministry. “Collaborative ministry” is a miserable-sounding quasi-tautology — better to be honest that this is people management, of the sort required and exercised in any workplace bigger than a sole-practitioner’s workshop.

More recent, perhaps, is the need to be also the manager of an organisation. Reading a profit-and-loss account and a balance sheet, managing a relationship with an architect, understanding and applying current safeguarding and H.R. practices — these aren’t things that can be left to others in ministry; and while ordained ministry doesn’t require expertise in any of these areas, it does now demand competence in them, sufficient at the very least to be able to take responsibility for translating the expertise of others into the language and praxis of the Christian community.

4. Manging the self along the journey

The self-motivation required in ordained ministry is extraordinary. The responsibility for managing one’s own time, and (too often) for determining by one’s self one’s outputs and outcomes, is onerous. Warped self-motivation (in any number of directions) can lead to unhappiness, complacency or exhaustion; and the stress placed on loved ones can be immense. Taking mature care of one’s self in ministry is an aptitude to be nurtured.

None of this can be achieved alone, and requires the high levels of support and challenge that come from the accountability. Accountability, in turn, comes from being a member of a team, and from being in a regular, meaningful (i.e. at least fortnightly) supervisory relationship with one who has oversight of one’s ministry.

5. A commitment to an evangelistic mission

Growth — in activity, engagement, grace and hope — should be the normative fruits of ordained ministry. Interrogating stagnation and eliminating spiritually-draining praxis are some of ordained ministry’s necessary tasks. All of this requires a readiness to rejoice at, and replicate, examples of growth; to nurture an across-the-board ecclesial culture that welcomes, and expects, growth; and to allocate resources of energy and gifts towards projects and initiatives that aim for growth. The link here to apologetic teaching — a compellingly and coherently presented faith — is vital.

6. A heart for justice in partnership

Growth — in activity, engagement, grace and hope — flourishes when churches proclaim the good news in deed as well as word, joining the mission of God that seeks for justice and the glory of local communities animated by the Spirit of Christ. An Acts 6:1–6 ordained ministry calls others into this mission that reaches out from the sacramental life of the Church, while recognizing that, within contemporary society, the forming of partnerships with other agencies, groups and charities is itself an act of calling. Ordained ministry requires this somewhat arminian ability to see the scope for justice in partnership, and the credibility within the wider community to be able to act on it.

I hope that Faithful Stewards in a Changing Church encourages more conversation; and that, on the other side of the mountain, lies a new, shorter, useful Ordinal for today’s Church in Wales.