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our <strong>parish</strong> is blessed. These times, however, have also often led<br />
to conversations that might not otherwise have happened.<br />
Of course, no programme of Initial Ministerial Education<br />
in today’s Church of England would be complete without solid<br />
doses of ‘leadership development’, and training on the vital<br />
legal dimensions of <strong>parish</strong> life. These have the potential to be<br />
quite dry and tedious subjects; but I’m<br />
pleased to say I found them very<br />
stimulating – especially the sessions<br />
organised by the diocese on Canon Law.<br />
Having said that, perhaps being the<br />
product of two generations of Diocesan<br />
Secretaries means that this sort of thing runs in my blood!<br />
Through classes with my fellow curates, and through practical<br />
involvement (I serve as clerk to my Deanery Chapter, as a<br />
member of the Deanery and Diocesan Synods, and as<br />
secretary to the diocesan branch of Forward in Faith), I have<br />
become more confident than I ever thought possible in these<br />
aspects of the role of the modern <strong>parish</strong> priest. At times it can<br />
feel far from the vision laid out in the writings of St Jean<br />
Vianney and the work of a seventeenth-century French curé.<br />
But if we truly believe in the Church as the ark of our salvation<br />
then we must be committed to working within her structures,<br />
however frustrating and imperfect they may seem at times. As<br />
Catholics, with a focus on the Incarnation and the capacity for<br />
holiness in the most mundane and earth-bound of things, it is<br />
important that we engage as fully as we can with the wider<br />
Church. It is here that another important lesson has been<br />
learned: the value of simply turning up to things. This is not<br />
just about expressing appreciation for the commitment of<br />
others (though this is important, too); but as ‘ambassadors for<br />
Christ’ that appreciation takes on an additional dimension.<br />
We support our fellow-workers in the vineyard out of love for<br />
the Heart of Jesus, and it is this love that serves to hallow our<br />
apparently mundane and frequent engagement in administration.<br />
I have undoubtedly grown and changed as a person in the<br />
last three years, and I felt this most especially when receiving<br />
Holy Orders. Throughout these momentous changes in my<br />
identity, however, I also remained a husband and a parent.<br />
Given the differences between the family arrangements of<br />
most Roman Catholic priests compared to Anglicans, I was<br />
unsure quite how much Cardinal Schönborn’s book might<br />
have to say to those aspects of my identity. I do not stop being<br />
a priest when I am with my family, even if I am in mufti. Yet,<br />
as I read, I found little that needed to be understood from the<br />
perspective of celibacy, and where that state of life was<br />
assumed in the reader, it was easy to see aspects that applied<br />
more widely. This underlines the way in which the priestly life<br />
simply cannot be defined simply through what is done. Time<br />
was spent discussing this at theological college, and though<br />
many of us were keen to stress the ontological model of<br />
priesthood – preferring to see it as a way of being – it is only<br />
through living it that it has been possible to begin to<br />
understand what this means. I am blessed to have the support<br />
of a loving family behind me: through all these changes they<br />
have remained solid, and I have found their readiness to make<br />
sacrifices themselves a source of inspiration and strength.<br />
It is important that we<br />
engage as fully as we can<br />
with the wider Church<br />
Curacies are rarely a bed of roses. There are always<br />
potential conflicts to be negotiated: not least the reality that,<br />
at the end of the day, one is never ‘in charge’ in any ultimate<br />
sense. But in spite of the inevitable frustrations that have come<br />
my way, as I look back on the past three years the overall<br />
feeling is one of great thankfulness to God for the many<br />
blessings I have received here. As I begin<br />
to consider where God may be calling<br />
me next, my prayer is that I might one<br />
day be worthy of St John Vianney’s<br />
words: ‘A good shepherd, a pastor after<br />
God’s heart, is the greatest treasure that<br />
the good Lord can grant to a <strong>parish</strong>, and one of the most<br />
precious gifts of divine mercy.’ 5<br />
ND<br />
The Revd Christopher Phillips is Assistant Curate of St<br />
Margaret’s, Ilkley.<br />
1<br />
Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, The Joy of Being a Priest: Following<br />
the Curé of Ars, Ignatius Press (2010).<br />
2<br />
Quoted in Benedict XVI’s Letter to Priests, 16 June 2009.<br />
3<br />
Schönborn, 9.<br />
4<br />
Francis Trochu, Le Curé d’Ars, London: Burns & Oates Ltd (1927),<br />
129.<br />
5<br />
‘Le Sacerdoce, c’est l’amour du cœur de Jésus’ in Le curé d’Ars. Sa pensée<br />
– Son cœur. Présentés par l’Abbé Bernard Nodet, éd. Xavier Mappus,<br />
Foi Vivante, 1966, quoted in Benedict XVI’s Letter to Priests.<br />
A Seaside Parish<br />
Hastings Pier was gutted by fire six years ago, and<br />
after a £14.6m refurbishment has reopened. The<br />
clergy of Christ Church, St Leonards, on whose <strong>parish</strong><br />
boundary it lies, have been staking their claim – with<br />
the help of Dunstan (left) and Lenny.<br />
June 2016 ■ newdirections ■ 9