Called to leave the ministry.

A little back I mentioned Simon Parke writing in the Church Times -"Called — to leave the ministry", 30 January 2004, by Simon Parke -well it's now appeared [though you have to go to the search part of the CT site, select "features" in the search box and type in some of the details just mentioned]. It's a weekly series so next week the next episode [published in paper two weeks ago] and so on. It's worth a look.

For me it's made doubly poignant by the recent announcement that a colleague in the local deanery has just announced his retirement to pursue a non-clergy career [still being explored as to what that might be -teaching?]. I don't know the inside story but I rather suspect that there are reasons similar to Simon Parke's in there and things that I could relate to in terms of the way the church priorities seem to be awry. I still think that it is important that we have some kind of exit review of such people [if they are willing] as well as some way to take the vocational temperature of those of us who somehow stay in to get an idea of what it is that the Spirit may be saying to the churches through that area of the church's life. I know there are risks of getting a list of moans, but if we could have the patience and wisdom to get past that I suspect we would be learning something rather important for the future of the church.