{"id":2862,"date":"2007-03-14T09:08:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-14T09:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2019-11-22T16:56:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T16:56:22","slug":"a-full-time-preoccupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2862","title":{"rendered":"A full time preoccupation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bit more navel-gazing…

Been musing much on my spiritual director\u2019s question, and discussing it with my wife in those brief moments of adult conversation that are presently possible. So let\u2019s try and unpick this a little further.<\/p>\n

The sense of conflict that I feel is that a significant chunk of my energy and attention goes towards the nexus of \u2018Peak Oil\u2019 questions \u2013 all that the Learning Church sequence has been discussing, all that might come under the heading of \u2018prophetic ministry\u2019. This inevitably means that I don\u2019t give more time to other church or priestly activities, and so I am perennially afflicted by a guilty conscience. Yet the truth is that a) I do not doubt that those activities are core to my vocation, and that I am being led by God when I am involved in them; b) I do not believe that any person would be able to meet all the expectations generated in this post by the continuing \u2018George Herbert model\u2019 of ministry; c) I am setting up various systems to take forward that wider work of the church in positive and creative ways (that is, I do believe that my ministry here is bearing some sort of fruit). I remain, fundamentally, very happy here, with a sense of peace that I am where God wants me to be.<\/p>\n

My wife described it to me as \u2018you have a (more than) full time occupation, you also have a full time preoccupation \u2013 and all your other commitments, eg a family with three under-fives wanting your time!\u2019 To go back into academia wouldn\u2019t solve my problem \u2013 there would still be the full time expectations relating to academia, which my preoccupation \u2013 which, to emphasise, I do see as vocational \u2013 would prevent me from engaging with to the extent that exterior demands would wish.<\/p>\n

It comes back to what priestly ministry is about. Is it still the George Herbert model, or is there room \u2013 drawing on what a stipend is intended for (to free the minister to pursue God\u2019s intentions for them) \u2013 to shape this ministry in a Sam-shaped way? The parson is supposed to be the person within a community \u2013 who, through being enabled to be themselves, frees up others to be themselves in the light of God. I do see that as core to what we are supposed to do. So I do not serve by lopping off the bits of me that do not fit into the mould \u2013 that is not an advertisement for life in abundance. One of the things that I touched on with my director is that I have come to the point where, for the first time in my life, I am consciously choosing to disappoint the expectations that people have in me. That can only be a good thing, however strenuous the transition is.<\/p>\n

And the conclusion from all this \u2013 as discussed with beloved \u2013 is rather a simple one: barring any deus ex machina<\/span> interventions, we\u2019ll be staying here for another decade or so. Which is a prospect which brings peace to the soul.
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bit more navel-gazing…Been musing much on my spiritual director\u2019s question, and discussing it with my wife in those brief moments of adult conversation that are presently possible. So let\u2019s try and unpick this a little further. The sense of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,24,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiography","category-mersea","category-ministry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3npsc-Ka","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6526,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/6526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}