A Priest in Every Parish

The Church of England still contends it is just that; the Church for our Nation. Yet where are the priests? Where will they come from in future? I understand there is only a handful of candidates at Mirfield this year, and St Stephen's house is not much better. But should this come as a surprise?

The Church Times recently published statistics about Ordinands. Now I was ordained just fifty years ago, and in that year there were around six hundred new deacons. This year there were 564, so we are doing well, aren't we? No, we are not.

In 1960 the overwhelming majority of new deacons were men under thirty, with a possible forty years of ministry ahead of them. They were almost without exception stipendiary, full-time clergymen. The then archbishop said that if we kept those numbers up, we would just about replace those dying or retiring. This was not in the days of George Herbert and his ideal of the country parson; it is recent history.

In 2009, of the 564 being ordained, only 309 were entering full-time stipendiary ministry. About half of them will have been women, so the number of full-time male deacons ordained is down from 600 to about 160. Well, that's pretty good, isn't it, since we have reduced the parishes by amalgamations.? No, it is not good. Compare the years of service to be expected now with 1960. Most of us then could look forward to forty years in the priesthood. Today, the number of candidates under the age of 30 is only 74. Seventy-four younger full-time priests - half of them female. Small wonder our colleges are struggling. And where will our Anglo-Catholic parishes get their priests?

Of the remaining candidates, the number between 50 and 59 being recommended has risen to 126. Go on a course at 55, complete three years training, and at 58 you are ordained; with, at best, eight or nine years of full-time ministry ahead. When set against years of ministry, it is vastly more expensive for the church to ordain older candidates. It is not many years since no-one would be considered for ordination over the age of forty. Now that is considered young.

This is a vicious spiral; ordain older candidates, and the young will have no model of priesthood to attract them. The Dean of Leicester said she was looking forward to a time when the church of England would be feminised. That is happening very rapidly; but the ministry is also becoming geriatric. Still there seem to be no misgivings at the prospect of young priests leaving the Church of England to join the Ordinariate. "There will be an influx of women to fill the gap". That was said in 1992. It has not happened. For how much longer will the Church of England be able to claim to be a Church of the Nation, with every soul in the care of a Vicar or Rector? Someone has to wake up, and start working, paying and praying for younger ordinands.

If the Church of England were to fail, it should be found in my parish

Grateful thanks to Fr Michael Gollop in his blog for reminding us of Keble's assertion; and how (although I heard it repeated in different words at a clergy meeting today) it can no longer hold. "It'll see me out until I retire" is not much of a mission statement. No need for me to waste space blogging about this: just a chance to show you a picture from Canterbury, and to refer you to Fr Gollop's piece on his own blogspot or on the Anglo Catholic site. The Canterbury picture is first a reminder that this is the Church of England which HAS failed: and is designed to encourage you to see my account of All Saints Day which I spent in Harbledown, just up the hill from the Mother Church of the Communion. [Also on the Anglo-Catholic site a day or two ago.]

http://www.theanglocatholic.com/

All Saints Galore

St George had borrowed another's shield

We pushed Halloween aside this morning at St Francis' Bournemouth, and celebrated All Saints. Some of the children represented certain of the Company of Heaven; I was introduced to St Sebastian with a tennis racquet - patron saint of Sportmen, I was told - I suppose it was because he became a dartboard for his persecutors. Then we had Francis (of course) with a collection of furry animals, St Vitus (in tutu) as Patron of Dance, and a very regal St Adelaide. I'd had to google her; born 931, daughter of Rudolph of Burgundy, betrothed as a child to Lothair of Provence. When Lothair died, leaving her with a young daughter, she was imprisoned for refusing to marry the son of Beringarius who succeeded Lothair. It is all exciting stuff .. and she is also called Adelheid. But no doubt you knew that already.

We sought for Saints in the Congregation

Then we got down to the business of talking about who is and who is not a saint. The epistle teaches us that we are children of God; and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So we went through the congregation finding potential saints... since Saints is what we are all called to be. We wondered about John Henry Newman; had be been a Saint all the time? Surely he had; the Church simply reassures us about this when it Beatifies or Canonises its saints. And today is for all the thousands which no one can number, unbeatified, un-named, yet all part of that company which no man can number - the Company of Heaven who share the Bread of Immortality with us, at the Table of the Lord.

Tomorrow it is All Saints again, this time in the approaches to Canterbury... a confirmation at Harbledown.

More good news

Outward Bound

Half-term continues; so does the weather, and courtesy of Gran (aka the Flying Buttress) we set off on the Island Princess for a trip to the Needles. What a day for it!

Approaching Hurst Castle

We were afloat for little more than two hours, and on every hand there were wonderful views.

Fort Albert

Seemed a pity not to share them so, though I've no profound thoughts, the scenery should speak for itself.

Western Tip of the Isle of Wight

The Needles from one direction appear just menacing great lumps, from another side you can see just why they were called Needles. They are the result of long-term erosion; once there was a landbridge Westward to southern Dorset.

Taking in the View: the Needles & the Battery

It was a bonus for us that there is a repaircrew at the foot of the Lighthouse, so we could wave to them and also get a better idea of the scale of everything.

Good news....

Since no news is good news, here is some no news. A wonderful sunny day in Lymington, and a free Sunday! Our daughter brought 10yr old grandson yesterday to stay for half-term (looking pensive on the right). She has now gone back to Wales but after attending an 8 o'clock said Communion at St Thomas' - very BCP for Trinity xxi - it was good to stroll along the cliffs and on the beach just a few miles Southwest of home. Very restorative. There was even one hardy family with a toddler paddling!

If I weren't an anglo-catholic, I think I'd be a blue-domer. Notwithstanding the claims that science has 'disproved' God, the sea and the sky always set me wondering. The tide has been going in and out from whenever it was that water and land were separated; and when I consider the heavens, the works of His fingers, the moon and the stars that He has ordained; well "what is man that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

Even empty beachhuts can look lovely in such weather. Next weekend will be less restful; three sermons in two days, and a trip to East Kent into the bargain. But that will be All Saints, which is a great time.

Many or Few Revisited

I have been properly rebuked for the harshness of what I said in the last paragraph of "By Many or By Few" , so I have amended it.

I've been too ready to criticise those who have not yet been able to decide in favour of the Ordinariate. Theoretically I have known it's been much easier for me, in retirement; but in practice I have still been horribly judgemental. I am very sorry for that.

I suppose after thirty-five years of being on, or following, General Synod, I have become a bit case-hardened. I have seen that body grow progressively more illiberal, and have come to the conclusion that we can expect NOTHING of any value from it for Traditionalists. The offer of the Ordinariate came as such a relief to me that I failed to appreciate the difficulties for many others. As a result, SSWSH appeared to me as a last straw, an attempt by the Establishment, under the guise of being 'catholic', to undermine what the Pope is doing for us.

Others have thought much the same (for instance William Oddie) - but it is not the whole truth. There are honourable men among those setting up SSWSH, and some doubtless genuinely believe that the Church of England will back down and give anglo-catholics their own bishops (as in the former Act of Synod) but this time with Jurisdiction. I think they are wrong, but it is clearly a hopeful shelter for those who cannot yet accept the Ordinariate. So, we go on praying, for those who are deciding (some at great cost to themselves) to seek to join the Ordinariate, and those who still trust in the generosity and good will of the Church of England.

For myself, once again, I ask pardon of those I have offended by harsh and judgemental words; I will try to do better in future.

Pre-Nups

So busy with posts about Ordinariates and such that most blogs seem to have missed the court decision to allow Pre-Nuptial agreements. These are set up to avoid a millionaire having to pay the bulk of his or her fortune to a gold-digging spouse. What no-one seems to notice is that such an agreement would nullify the marriage; for it is setting limits to the "Have and hold - better or worse - richer or poorer" - to say nothing of "with all my worldly goods I thee endow". Surely if a marriage is entered into with its ending foreseen and pre-arranged, it cannot be a lifelong marriage?

I seem to remember that French kings were always married with great splendour in Cathedrals - Rheims or Paris, I think - but despite the presence of Cardinal Archbishops, one person was always excluded - the local parish priest. That was because in law his presence was necessary for a valid marriage; so if things did not work out, it could always be claimed the marriage had been illegal from the start.

Maybe that was just a Protestant canard; but if anyone wanted an easy escape from a marriage, a pre-nuptial agreement might prove equally helpful. If Henry VIII had had such a pre-nup with Catherine of Aragon, maybe there'd have been no Church of England? Now that's a happy thought...