From Moorland to Gangland

The other day someone started a discussion on Twitter about things you don't learn at Theological College that you have to deal with in ministry. One of the partners sessions at college that I have been eternally grateful for was a morning when married clergy came and talked about their experiences. Little tricks like how to protect time for family, to always have spare food in the fridge, lines to give when the Vicar is in but can not be disturbed. These little practical nuggets have served me well as a Vicar's wife. However there are things that you never expect and you are never prepared for. The mundane normal things like cleaning up after services, the walk down the road to return coats, the phone calls in the middle of the night and the sheep in the porch at Church.  However when you leave the comfort of the Yorkshire Moorland to Inner City Gangland, the mundane and practical are thrown out the window. Sure the extra food in the fridge and pantry is still beneficial, in fact more necessary than before. In reality the Vicar is and has to be prepared to provide food at anytime, pay electricity bills and buy random toiletries, nappies etc. Even with the Foodbank next to Church the level of desperation and poverty is that many people need things there and then.  These tasks are still in the realms of practicality and you could foresee their occurrence.

What I could not have predicted (or at least I had not really thought about)  was "Mummy is it safe to go to school this morning?", "Mummy you can't go and talk to that person you would be putting us both in danger". These I could not have predicted anymore than I could have predicted my son having to phone to check his Father was ok, because there had been a shooting near Church and his Father was taking too long to come home. I admit I phoned too. I could not have predicted the sheer number of times the Church property would be broken into. The nights sat up waiting as worried for your husbands safety, as much as you are for the parishioner he is with. Engaging with these events are all right and proper. It is incarnational, it is missional and it is what Catholic mission is best at. However you are not prepared for it, no one even mentions it. The process of training is all very safe. You go from the comfortable bubble world of college, where your placements are all in Churches with good practice, to a curacy in a safe Church with healthy growth or numbers. The real Church of England on the streets is so far from this experience it is almost laughable.

Not only are colleges increasingly being encouraged to decrease the theological education we give our clergy, leaving them ill equipped to educate and lead the laity, but we do not give them the practical skills for practical ministry. The skills required to change perception where people are reluctant to reform, afraid of the reality of belief and afraid to commit to genuine doctrine. I think because the Church is afraid of itself. If we trained clergy to have confidence in who we were, what we believed, then maybe the laity would be a bit more confident. If clergy can not be confident, the Church can not even begin to engage with a community so broken and so desperate for strength, help, certainty and leadership. I know our inner city parish is an in extremis  example, we are the polar opposite of that safe training environment. But society as a whole is floundering, so lost in cacophony of self definition and mindfulness that it is tying itself in knots. My generation and younger are the start of a new wave craving certainty, order, definition and guidance. We can see the world freedom has created, it is confused and lost. As a teenager it was the quiet order of sacramental worship that lured me in. The knowledge and development gained from going every week, the time getting to know God. It was having clergy that could answer my questions, debate points from a safe a certain point of view. This provided me with the grounding I have, it has held fast and my faith has only grown. When a society is owned by chaos, the quiet certain presence of the clergy who walk through it make a difference. Their presence at the site of a shooting, their presence in schools, their presence on the streets. Ever present and ever willing to engage, answer and educate. We may not change a community over night, the answers to the many problems here will never be that simple. But they need more than just more police, more money and better policy. They need a whole approach, they need love, they need value and they need guidance. Maybe college's could spend a little more time preparing their clergy for the Incarnational side of their ministry. Being Christ among the people is  vital and is to be combined with the theological education. Neither should be over looked, corners should not be cut, training time should not be shortened. If we are genuinely serious about bringing more people to Christ, if we are genuinely wanting to grow the faithful, then we have to be faithful disciples not just one day but seven days. To do this we need to equip our clergy to do this rather than run smoothie bars, which are nothing but shallow imitations of the truth that can be gained through the sacraments. Clergy should be trained to be Sacramental and Incarnational examples in all they do or say. They should at least be made aware of some of the more practical encounters that come with the Incarnational side. I would not swap where we are for the world,we make a difference. However sometimes I question whether our children were or could have ever been prepared for what they see on a daily basis. However I rest easy knowing that they see their Father and their Vicar encountering, embracing and loving the people around them. I hope against hope that the sacrificial life example will rub off on them and that they too will see the value of sharing Christ's love not just one day a week but seven days a week.