Leaping the Vicarage Wall

I've just finished reading Ronni Lamont's recent book Leaping the Vicarage Wall: Leaving Parish Ministry, and wanted to share a quick review of it.

Writing this appears to have been both therapy and source of frustration for Ronni Lamont, who stopped being a parish priest after several jobs, and now works on the fringes of the church. I sense the therapy comes in finding out that there are lots of others who've done the same as she has -- to the point that Bishops might need to consider this as a new group in their own right. And the sadness and frustration coming from finding some common themes emerging from the others she's interviewed -- themes that have been largely known about for a decade or two. The one area that is probably new is the extent to which female priests are finding the time demands incompatible with what they want for their children, in a way that it seems fewer men resist. And even the flexibility available these days around part-time, self-supporting, or local ministry doesn't (she implies) really help.

Some chapters, particularly "Parish Life Explored" and "Personality and Ministry", won't be surprising to many who've had significant contact with the church already, but for younger people exploring vocations, might be a useful eye opener. The chapters on "Theological Training" and "Support for Clergy" are mostly bleak, with some dioceses having 15% of their priests off sick (presumably mainly through stress), and also 15% retiring early.

Thankfully there's more positive news at the end when she tackles "Where do we go from here?" The advice about how to set boundaries and expectations, and the need for management and technology training all makes good sense. And certainly the need to find prayer triplets and/or other small cells for support is key. But I feel there are some bigger challenges to the bishops that should be faced by the material she's assembled: if parish-based ministry is noticeably more likely to cause people to leave it than those in chaplaincies, cathedral roles, or para-church roles, then isn't something wrong in the parish? Why does that particularly seem to sap people's sense of themselves?

Who would benefit from reading this? I'm slightly surprised to find myself suggesting any ordained person in the Church of England, or anyone working for or living with one. And for anyone thinking of becoming ordained, this should give much pause for thought. Recommended.

Pioneering Finance, the Bottom Line, and Pope F1

One of the podcasts I regularly listen to is the BBC's Bottom Line, which thankfully isn't about techniques to avoid showing a VPL, but instead gets three CEOs  to discuss topics of interest to business leaders. I'm not a business leader, but as a leader in the voluntary sector, there's much of interest as they talk about (for example) innovation, regulation, motivation, leadership, marketing and 'talent management'. And it's hosted by one of the Beeb's finest: Evan Davis from the Dragon's Den. I've just listened to the episode on Alternative Finance(which you can also listen to on iPlayer until Feb 2014) . There three leaders of recent finance startups discuss how they're taking on the big incumbents in finance: the retail banks. One is M-PESA (a newish arm of Vodafone) which is changing the face of finance in Africa, particularly Kenya, that allows movement of money through mobile phones. Some estimate 25% of the GDP of the whole country moves through their system. Another is Zopa, which provides loans to individuals and small businesses, funded by ordinary individuals, not big corporations. The rate of interest are smaller, and because they're unsecured, they're available to more people than the traditional banks will lend to, and yet are still providing more than 5% return to the investors. It's been a good reminder to me to put some savings into this, as a novel way of supporting and loving my neighbours. (Though it would be better still if we were able to combine this with the Relational Principles from the excellent Relationships Foundation, and do this with people we actually know, not just with faceless others from the same country. So Zopa in a church community, or amongst parents connected to a particular school ...)

So not only this excites me as a way of getting involved in helping others, it's another example of innovation in practice. Making headway against a very entrenched way of doing things, with potentially big interests at stake, and the opportunity to find new ways to support individuals and our society too ... isn't this similar to the challenge that our various new religious leaders (Justin Welby, Jorge "Pope F1" Bergoglio ...) face? What opportunities will I have as a Christian and parish leader, should I be able to see them? I may not be officially a capital-P "Pioneer leader" in the Church of England, but I think Dave Male is right to say "we're all pioneers now". Perhaps you too will benefit from listening in to the Bottom Line ...