I am delighted that there are real questions being addressed in the training institutions about the nature of priesthood and ordained leadership within the Church. One real hope is that they are preparing a generation of priests for an uncertain and changing future role within the Church.
One of my Anglican heroes WH Vanstone was I believe prophetic when he offered in his book Fare Well in Christ an image of what priestly leadership is about. (Note that the title of the book is Fare Well in Christ not as others list it "Farewell in Christ" - there is an important and obvious difference!)
Vanstone tells the story of how of in the early days of the RAF more "shot-down" pilots were dying of drowning than of their wounds.
Instructions went out that all pilots must be taught to swim - and that anyone unable to swim should not be given their Wings. Clearly this unexpected criteria could put the future of individuals and the Service in some jeopardy.
One Squadron Leader leader is reported to have retorted " Sir I joined the RAF "to fly like a bird" if I had wanted "to swim like a fish" I would joined the Navy".
But the Service insisted that all operational pilots should be swimmers.
Accordingly the first group of pilots were shipped off to a swimming pool with a week to learn to swim.On the first day the group was told to swim the length of the pool. Some swam with ease, and arriving at the other end watched the struggles of others with relief. Others made it with some encouragement, others tried and failed, and some could not even try.
To the surprise of the "successful" (who had perhaps thought that they could now go back to normal duties), they were told that they had the remainder of the week to teach the rest of the group to swim. They were being required to pass the swimming test as a group. By the end of the week all could swim the required length!
Whereas in my lifetime clergy would have been expected to be the successful swimmers moving off to new tasks-increasingly priestly leadership will focus on enabling others to fulfil their vocations.
More importantly I believe we priests are being called to be agents of change - unpredictably to be at the forefront on new ways of working. I wonder how many of the new batch will feel like the Squadron Leader in the coming months and years or have they been trained to expect the unexpected.
That's a great story Tom. Thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: Paul Fromont | 09 July 2007 at 04:04