We discussed my time line of faith, what the good news is, what the role of a priest is, what I envision as being important within the Church and what I am to expect in the coming months.
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| Timelines, past, present... Perhaps not future thouvh |
He was impressed with my time line, though noted I had a tendency to refer to how I had left things behind, using negative terminology and suggested I put a more positive spin on it all. Rather than saying 'I went from this church to that because I didn't like this' I should phrase it more like 'after having my faith shaken at 16 I decided to explore different denominations within my faith as well as other faiths until I realised that there really was only anglicanism for me.' which sounds much better.
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| Pray tell? |
I gave a 5 minute ramble, as I am want to do (this blog is called roshisramblings after all) to explain what the good news is and whilst impressed with all the theology I threw into it he wanted me to condense it into one short sentence. So after a bit of thought I settled on 'God loves us so much that he sent his own son down to suffer and die so that we may have eternal life' which sums it up quite well.
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| Role of a priest, definitely not vampire slaying... |
I've struggled with getting to the bottom of what the role of the priest is, and I think I again bored the bishop to death with my rambling around everything it could be. He helped focus me though and finally I found the answer. A priest's role is to administer the sacraments. No one else can do it, of all the things a priest does it is the one thing a lay person cannot. This is the fundamental role of the priest and I feel relieved now I have the answer to it and I found it myself! No matter what your position is within the Church as an ordained minister administering the sacraments is the first and foremost job you have. Everything else is secondary.
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| We need to keep it alive |
This led into a conversation about what else is important in the modern church and my reply was making God possible. In the secular society not many people believe in God, his presence is impossible as there is no empirical evidence for it. The modern church needs to help people make him/her possible for themselves. I believe the mission of the church should be to build community in the local area, a concept that has dwindled in recent years, and then from that point help people explore what their own belief in God may be, from a stance of open friendliness.
Finally we discussed the coming months. He believes I should be going for my BAP either next year if I work hard enough for it or the year after that, but no longer. The timeline is in the ADDO's hands. Once they feel I'm ready I'll have a mock set of interviews within the diocese and if I do well on them I'll go to the BAP.
It was a very pleasant chat and I felt very welcome throughout. I'm glad that he affirmed my candidacy and saw potential in me, it has strengthened my resolve.
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