Sometimes God doesn’t want your prayers for other people, sometimes He just wants to minister to you.
A Pastor once described the church and the life of a Christian to me as a ship made up of three parts. The bow is a battleship where those on the spiritual front line find themselves; it’s the most vulnerable part of the ship. The stern is a hospital ship, where those damaged on the front line go to recover. Finally there is the cruise ship that makes up the midship. Continue reading
Purple haze all in my brain,
Lately things just don’t seem the same,
Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why,
Excuse me while I kiss the sky.
Jimi Hendrix
It was time for the Bishop to make his move. Was it going to be checkmate and game over? I didn’t know. I did know that whatever happened following as a result of meeting my local Bishop was going to be significant. Continue reading
Red Dalek, Yellow, Dalek: Articulate, Articulate, Articulate!
The Bible is peppered with suggestions that strength is found in weakness. On the face it sounds counter-intuitive but realign how you consider such a phrase and the truth is unveiled. The trouble is that identifying and addressing weaknesses so that they can become strengths can be a painful experience. Continue reading
God is in the business of making the impossible possible.
It was just as well I had scheduled in some time to reflect at the end of my Grand Tour of theological colleges. 48 hours after returning home I was knocking on the door of a vicarage to start my second meeting with an Examining Chaplain.
Continue reading
Significance in numbers?
Exploring ordination means preparing for a future life that may never happen. There are no guarantees, no certainties. Getting to a Bishops’ Advisory Panel is not a given, nor is a recommendation that I train for ordination. Yet I have to prepare for the possibility that I will be recommended. It means investing significant amounts of time, thought and prayer for something that may not happen. Continue reading
I walked right into an Agatha Christie novel.
I started work on Monday with the security of a ‘permanent’ contract (there is no such thing as a truly permanent contract of course). There were important deadlines to meet but they all seemed achievable. For the first time in a while work was not going to be causing me any stress. It was just as well for it came thick and fast from the ordination path. Continue reading
Sometimes God takes us right up to the edge
When is a good time to tell your employer that you are exploring ordination and might quit the job? A good time would be well away from any contract renewal discussions. Just after a job contract is renewed might be okay, although the employer might not be so pleased. How about at the meeting with your boss to discuss the possibility of renewing your contract? Now that would be stupid. Continue reading
Things can be too good, simple and easy to be true, but are they always so?
Are somethings too good to be true? When things appear to come so simply and easy, do you question them like I do?
Right now I can sense God rolling His eyes again.
In a break from redrafting my BAP form I had my first visit to a theological colleges and the first experience on this journey where the whole family were involved. I knew that as I drove towards the college that it was going to be was the easiest and the hardest college to visit. It was my local one. Continue reading
“Life is a roller coaster, just gotta ride it”, The wisdom of Ronan Keating
After an intense period of writing over Christmas (see my last three posts at the bottom of this post) I had a momentary break from thinking and writing. It had been a fruitful period and God had helped me make some great progress in finding out who I was and might become. Continue reading
Last week I posted the first of 3 questions I have been asked to ponder before meeting some Examining Chaplains; they will be given the task of discerning whether I should be sent for a BAP.
In last week’s post (Rescued from the darkness) I thought over my spiritual journey so far and considered how my sense of a call to ordained ministry fitted in it. Next week I’ll be posting my thoughts for the final question on the future challenges for the Anglican Church in the future, and my role in it. They will be collected together as the Ministry Enquiry Form that will be given to the Examining Chaplains to help them in their task.
This week’s post is the second of the questions set by my DDO:
“Please give your understanding of ordained ministry in the Church of England. Anglicans of different traditions may have different emphases and language to describe ordained ministry, Examining Chaplains will be interested to discover what you think and why.”
Here are my thoughts.
The Pilgrim Explorer 