Abstract
The Church constantly requires constant renewal. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, but our responsibility, as ministers and Christians, is to see where and how God is renewing his Church. In the autumn of 2012 a small group of Church of England parish priests met. We all shared a certain frustration with the way in which the ministry and wisdom of parish clergy is often overlooked in the strategic and tactical planning of the Church. Too often, we felt, parish ministry is regarded as a drag on the exciting and creative ministry happening elsewhere. Was it still possible for parish clergy to be both practitioners and scholars of pastoral reflection? Under the direction of Edward Dowler, Justin Lewis-Anthony and David Munchin, clergy were invited to participate in a symposium at St Martin-in-the-Fields in May 2013. Ten papers, under the title ‘Messengers, watchmen and stewards: the future of parish ministry’, were presented. The variety of subjects and the way in which they were debated showed the vitality and depth of learning which still continues in the parsonages of England: ‘The parish priest and the divided brain’; ‘The science of discernment’; ‘Evangelism as the cure of souls’. The five articles which follow were part of the presentation. Anders Bergquist begins with the basic question about the Church of England’s attitude towards learning in its clergy; Dennis Stamps reflects on the Pauline (pastoral) roots of the Ordinal; John Walker looks at the way in which a parish priest can help or hinder the formation of a faith community; my own paper examines the development of managerialism within the Church as an outworking of traditional Anglican pragmatism; Josephine Houghton maps the priest’s role at the Eucharist onto the ethical imperative to defend the poor.
Our experiences show that the clergy of the Church of England are an immensely creative resource for a thoughtful engagement between the Christian tradition and the particular circumstances of our society. For this resource to contribute to the renewal of the Church in years to come, we must look to the good will of the Church as a whole, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.