Rosalind Brown - On Being a Priest Today

COWLEY PUBLICATIONS is a ministry of the brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, a monastic order in the Episcopal Church. Our mission is to provide books and resources for those seeking spiritual and theological formation. Cowley Publications is committed to developing a new generation of writers and teachers who will encourage people to think and pray in new ways about spirituality, reconciliation, and the future.

Christopher Cocksworth is Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England, and the author of a number of books including Evangelical Eucharistic Thought in the Church of England (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and Holy, Holy, Holy: Worshipping the Trinitarian God (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1997). He is married with five children.

Rosalind Brown is a staff member of the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme, based at Sarum College, Salisbury, and is Vice Principal of the Diocese of Salisbury Ordained Local Ministry Program. She was ordained in the United States, where she lived for several years and was a member of the Community of Celebration, an intentional Christian community of the Episcopal Church. Rosalind is the author of several prize-winning hymns, How Hymns Shape Our Lives (Grove Books, 2001), and The Distinctive Diaconate, a report of the Diocese of Salisbury (Sarum College Press, 2003).

ON BEING A PRIEST TODAY

Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown

2002 by Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States of America by Cowley Publications, a division of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meansincluding photocopyingwithout the prior written permission of Cowley Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews.

First published in English under the title Being a Priest Today by the Canterbury Press Norwich of St. Marys Works, St. Marys Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 3BH, U. K.

Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown assert the moral right to be identified as the Authors of this Work.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Cocksworth, Christopher J.

[Being a priest today]

On being a priest today / Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown.

p. cm.

Originally published: Being a priest today. Nowrich, Norfolk, U.K.: Canterbury Press, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-56101-253-4

1. Priesthood. I. Brown, Rosalind. II. Title.

BV663.C63 2004

262'.14dc22

2004001295

Acknowledgments

The Minister, The Belfry, The Bright Field, Waiting for It, by R. S. Thomas are reproduced by permission of J. M. Dent, Publishers.

Unless otherwise indicated, the scripture quotations herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized edition, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Gary Ragaglia

Cowley Publications

To all those with whom we have helped
to prepare for ordained ministry at

The Southern Theological Education
and Training Scheme (England)

Diocese of Salisbury
Ordained Local Ministry Scheme (England)

and

Ridley Hall, Cambridge (England)

It just so happens that the day we are writing this introduction is the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Churchs year. This year (2001), the Old Testament reading is from Jeremiah 23. It tells of Gods judgment on the leaders of Israel, who had failed to serve Gods 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 23:34)

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 Christa 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 Gods people so that they become all that God longs for them to bea 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 ChristGods gift of life for the world. The pastors of Gods people are called to help the Church enthrall 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 skillfully 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 Gods mercy, truth, and goodness, to a world battered by its own noise but starved of the sound of God.

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 Gods 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 Gods priestly people. In 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 seminaries filled exclusively with young men. Instead seminaries and divinity schools 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 and newer team ministries. 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. Priests ordained to minister within particular worshiping communities 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. 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.