Following on from my previous post let's talk about the third and the fourth vocations team member meetings.
The third meeting was all about my perception of what the job and life of a priest really was, mostly to ensure I'm not deluding myself. I read John Pritchard's The Life And Work Of A Priest to give myself some inspiration, as well as reading some blog posts about it online. I then had a crack at it and ran it past my father - who had looked into it himself previously - and my parish priest - who obviously lives it! My initial thoughts were a bit too prescriptive and I was quite naive about timings but I did seem to have the general gist correct. I ensured I made it a busy week so I could show as many activities as possible. I also added a column on the end of alternative activities as well as a disclaimer at the start stating that this was an especially busy week and as I have a family to consider I would not be able to keep up such a workload.
The vocations team member was very impressed with the range and breadth of activities I'd come up with, as well as the fact I had scheduled family and prayer time each day. If you do have a partner, and even if you don't, you have to make time for them or for yourself or it'll never work out. I focused predominantly on community based activities, as that is how I believe you can make the church relevant in an increasingly secular and distant society. Provide a range of activities for the local people, give them a place where they feel they belong and they can socialise. Some may never come to a service but for others it may plant a seed and pique their curiosity. Most will be happy for you to start community events with a prayer at least and even that small gesture is an act of worship that could lead to people wanting to know more!
Anyway I digress. The activities I thought of included but aren't limited to Netflix movie marathons, mens and womens social clubs, youth groups, coffee mornings, deanery synod meetings, PCC and choir meetings as well as staples of daily services, funerals, baptisms, marriages and private prayer and reflection.
By the end of the meeting the vocations team member had decided they wanted to come to my church as it seemed an exciting and vibrant place, especially for 18-35s!
This activity was very useful for focusing my mind on what the role will genuinely entail. It also gave me the opportunity to spend a couple of days shadowing my parish priest since he wanted me to experience it firsthand, as I've talked about previously.
The final piece of homework was the hardest. I had to assess my strengths and weaknesses against the 9 selection criteria, giving real life examples as I went. Now the 9 criteria are massively varied and cover huge tracts of life style. Luckily I found this version of it which breaks each criteria into 5 or 6 smaller sections. I created a table for it and instead of strengths and weaknesses went for strengths and areas in need of improvement. It took me ~4 hours in the end to create it all but I was quite happy with the end result. I had quite a few strengths but in faith and spirituality I acknowledge I need a lot more development.
In our final meeting we went through this document step by step. I was praised on how efficiently my table had lain out each criteria and made it easy to follow. I'll add a link to a blank one at a later date sometime. In the end the vocations team member believed I had actually more strengths than I had put down, as I had been quite critical of myself and put area in need of improvement for anything I didn't feel I'd hit 100%. They made this comment as many of the statements are 'have the potential for' or 'is taking steps to address/understand' which I am doing so technically I have hit.
By thinking through each criteria it has helped me to focus on where I need the most work. This means I can tailor my reading and researching towards the areas I'm most weak in first such as theology and explaining my faith, which I am currently doing with another book by John Pritchard - How To Explain Your Faith.
The vocations team member collated all my homeworks and the notes they made and emailed them to me to check over before passing them on to the diocesan director of ordinands ready for the next step which I shall talk about next time!
Comments
Post a Comment