Review for Ministers-at-Work by Rob Fox January 2002

Yes, this book is somewhat parochial (in both senses) but the issues and trends it identifies apply in some degree to every denomination in Britain. As Gordon Kuhrt is Director of Ministry for the Church of England it will be widely read and influential, because of its accessibility and scholarship as much as its authority, and it deserves to be.

The book falls into three broad sections. Part 1, Ministry and Strategy, is a concise but comprehensive and excellently summarised survey of the main developments in the Church of England’s understanding, resourcing and deployment for ministry over the past 40 years. Each key report and paper is summarised, with succinct quotation, and placed in historical and ecumenical context.

This part of the book is the author’s own work and displays a wide range of research and clear grasp of the major issues he identifies. An impressive list of consultations is given, including CHRISM, and every aspect of recognised ministry receives some attention. Not surprisingly, although the growing understanding of ministry as belonging to the whole people of God is emphasised, the dominant concern is with the stipendiary clergy. In this it is fair to say that the content is only following the material and reflects the facts. An analysis of why conditions of employment, numbers, and financing of stipendiary clergy have so dominated the understanding of ministry would have been an interesting inclusion but in one sense this is not the place: controversy is studiously avoided.

Part 2, Mapping the areas of ministry, is a compendium of short chapters on particular aspects of ministry, each written by specialists in that field. Topics include: vocation, selection, training (several chapters on different kinds), various aspects of (stipendiary) clergy conditions of service, lay ministry (several aspects), local and ordained local ministry, Chaplaincy. MSE does get a mention: in the chapter on Non-Stipendiary Ministry penned by Mark Hodge and John Mantle. All too brief, this is nevertheless a thoughtful and affirming contribution by two well-informed and sympathetic friends of MSE.

The final section of the book, and an important one, consists of the 12 Appendices. These give extended excerpts from key documents and up to date information on numbers and deployment of authorised and licensed ministers, even venturing a figure for MSEs. The information here is an important resource for understanding the current structure of formal ministry in the Church of England.

For those looking for support to MSE this book will in many ways be a disappointment. Compared with other identified distinctive ministry, such as Readers, Chaplains, Church Army and ministry to the Deaf, MSE appears marginal at best. On the other hand it gives the opportunity to place MSE within the context of the Church of England’s ministry as a whole (and similarly for other churches). To take one example: on page 52 the author draws out the six themes he identifies from the key statements on ministry from 1978, the third of which is “national parochial ministry and mission”. The parish is repeatedly seen as the basic unit for mission; read the book for the theological justifications for this. In practice many parishes have a non-resident working population, workplace communities which seldom have any contact with the local church. Stipendiary parish clergy rarely either receive appropriate training to exercise ministry in these communities or make any contact with them. In this sense no-go areas for a Church of England determined to maintain a comprehensive parochial coverage already exist. The new housing estate may be seen as a place of ministry by the local church, the new industrial estate seldom is; but the MSE is already there.

Reading this book and using its resources also provides an opportunity for Anglican MSEs to position themselves locate within the church’s ministry: for themselves and for others. The contribution of many other expressions of ministry is already well known and understood, that of MSE much less so. An important task is to change that: “To help ourselves and others to celebrate the presence of God and the Holiness of life in our work, and to see and tell the Christian story there”.