Priests in Secular Employment

Johnson Dorrie: "Ordained Ministers in Secular Employment" Theology vol 101 no 799 (Jan/Feb 1998) pp.22-28

Rev Dorrie Johnson is a MSE in the Diocese of Coventry and a full-time employee of a District health Authority.
The tone of his article (as of 1998) is pretty much 'here is something that should be investigated'; it is not an account of accomplished achievements.
His bibliography includes inter alia -

Bourke Michael: 'The Theology of the Non-Stipendiary Ministry' Theology (May 1981)

Hurst Anthony: Rendering unto Caesar (Churchman Pub 1986)

Ranken Michael: 'Ministry in Secular Employment and the Church's Mission' ACCM Occasional Paper No 31 (ACCM 1989)

"As Bourke describes it the role of the working priest is to go out from the church explore and return to tell the Church about it ... [Ranken] points out that we learnt from the well-intentioned missionaries of the last century that exported symbols may not be right for the new situation. ... Hurst suggests that the evangelism of the worker-priest or ordained Minister in Secular Employment firstly indicates to the people that their workplace has within it an authorised presence of the Church." [Quote from Johnson p.24]

"The MSE will identify with the work people experience the same contention take part of the blame carry the anxieties be among those needing forgiveness and release him/herself with compassion as well as the institution organisation or system." [Quote p.24]

"There may be a need to explore experiment with initiate and develop new ways of expressing both pastoral and particularly liturgical ministry. The concept of pastoral ministry is fairly readily understood and agreed but but liturgy is seldon thought to be possible outside the obvious 'religious' setting ... [but] where the people are gathered together as they are at work liturgies may arise not least around the ceremonies and rituals of promotion retirement or celebration. Can the structure and organisation of the institution be an environment for liturgy ?" [Quote p.25]

"Theological reflection upon God's purpose the nature of people and their relationship within a social political and economic environment brings a new vision. Concepts such as freedom choice targeting rights empoweringcan be employed to frustrate debate and to dehumanise rather than to create abundannt life. The gospel imperative needs to be applied to working practices." [Quote p. 25]

"Conventional approaches to seeking a spirituality can induce considerable ambivalence in the MSE as for other Christians at work. Accountability to God and the spiritual values of justice the common good sustainability and the wholeness of community may be in conflict with the accountability to the corporate institution or the workpace. That conflict has to be understood and should invigorate a spirituality of the community at work. While traditional spirituality may separate itself from the ordinary working world a spirituality at/for work must be sought which affirms the working environment as part of God's world." [Quote p. 26]