Call Waiting: A Church of England Initiative that Worked?

Back in 2008, the CofE launched the Call Waiting initiative, to encourage younger people to explore their calling and possible ordination. You can see the very good website here. A combination of demographics (an ageing church) and short-sighted policy (telling younger prospective leaders to go away and get a job for a few years and then come back to enquire about ordination when they were older - many never came back, and those who did were, well, older.) has resulted in an ageing cohort of clergy. The CofE stats published yesterday note that the average age of ordinands rose from 40 to 43 for men and 35 to 38 for women from 1999 to 2010.

That's ordinands, not clergy. 3/4 of vicars are over 50, and half of those are over 60. At 42, after 13 years of full time ministry, I'm still very comfortably a 'young vicar' in terms of age profile. And that worries me.

But now the good news. From 1998-2000 roughly 100 under-30's were ordained every year. It's not many, but it's ok. From 2001-9 it was nearer 80 a year, getting as low as 71 in some years. If you add on a 3-4 year curacy, that means only a handful who are still under 30 by the time they get their first post with real responsibility.

In 2010, out of nowhere 108 under-30's were ordained, up from 74 in 2009. That's the best figure since I was ordained in 1998. A data table tucked away on p56 of an Anglican stats report isn't exactly exhaustive evidence, but it's encouraging to think there might be a connection between the drive to recruit younger ordinands, and that starting to show up in the figures. It may, of course, be a blip. Or it may be that the CofE is at last waking up to the gifts that younger leaders have to offer.

latest Church of England stats

Just gone up on the main CofE website. Summary is here, full 62 pages of charts etc. are here. The main new stuff (it has the attendance figures which were published earlier this year) is about giving and vocations. Parish giving has risen, bucking the general trend across the charity sector, and over 500 people were ordained in 2010. However due to lots of retirements, overall numbers of full time clergy continue to fall. This is projected to drop a further 10% in the next 5 years.

At some stage the CofE will seriously need to reckon with this: the number of churches, expectation of a weekly Sunday communion, heavy clerical dependency etc. But since the change is all incremental, it feels like a slowly boiling frog scenario, and there's a danger we don't respond until it's too late. Maybe it is too late already.

The main stats document also has lots of info on confirmations, baptisms, weddings, funerals, chaplans and cathedrals.

If I get a moment, there'll be more analysis in the next few days.

church on the streets

What would happen if the church went out onto the streets on a Sunday morning, and gave stuff away....? One church in East Anglia set up a tab behind the counter at the local Greggs bakery, and gave away 'free hugs' to passers by....

While we are merrily hugging people on Sunday morning, people also encounter a grace gift as they stand at the till ready to pay for their food at the bakery just behind us. Some people (but not a lot) come out to express their thanks. Others decline the offer and ask that the gift is used for people who need it more than they do. The ladies working in Greggs do a great job as evangelists. “would you like the Church to pay this for you?” I hear the assistant manager ask people as one after the other people come to pay.


After a couple of hours I take a break from hugging and call in at the local tattoo shop to catch up with the staff and they ask what I’ve been up to. The owner, a loving young man is touched by the simplicity of showing love to people that he thrusts £20 into my hand to refresh the money supply behind the counter of Greggs.

After giving more dosh to the staff to use to offer people a free gift I direct some guys off the streets who are homeless to choose their lunch. They express their gratitude as they leave Greggs with a hearty lunch each… Courtesy of a man who owns a tattoo shop and served by Greggs staff who explain that their lunch is a gift from the church.

more at be the light

apologies to anyone who read this before 9.30 and couldn't make sense of it, the paragraphs are now in the right order!!

When Atheists Convert

A bit of original research, I haven't got the data sets but looks pretty accurate.

Sorry if you came here looking for something more profound........

from GraphJam, a while back now, but only just found it!

Digital Sea Scrolls

Those of you fluent in ancient Hebrew will rejoice that several of the Dead Sea Scrolls texts can now be viewed online. 5 of the scrolls, including the amazing full text of Isaiah (a find which pushed back the date of the oldest manuscript of Isaiah by 1000 years) can be viewed here, courtesy of the Israel Museum, in collaboration with Google.

For those of us who aren't fluent in ancient Hebrew, there's some very helpful commentary explaining the background to the texts, how the Biblical versions came together, and there's a verse by verse translation, so if you click on a verse in the viewer, a translation box pops up. The non-biblical material about the Essene sect fills in some of the background to the Jewish worldview around the time of Jesus, with texts which actually date from this period.

Thankfully those daft suppression conspiracy theories that used to swill around are now only the stuff of Dan Brown novels, and these finds are also impressive evidence for the textual accuracy of the Bible. Despite a gap of 1000 years between the Qumran manuscript and the other manuscripts used by translators, there aren't that many significant differences - those that exist are mainly to do with the process of copying, rather than the text being embellished over the years by people with an agenda. The site explains "The version of the text is generally in agreement with the Masoretic or traditional version codified in medieval codices, such as the Aleppo Codex, but it contains many variant readings, alternative spellings, scribal errors, and corrections". 
This vid explains a bit more:.

That familiar Jesus/Rocket Launcher combination

This must be a spoof, surely?

I'm pretty certain this is a mock-up, as a quick bit of 'research' can't find anyone selling this, just links to the picture. However, it's still an indictment of some forms of Christianity that we think someone capable of producing this sort of thing.

The thing that gives it away as a spoof is the English spelling of 'Saviour'. Or at least, I hope so....

via 22 words.

Be kind anyway....

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway…
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.”

“Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other- it doesn't matter who it is- and that will help to grow up in greater love for each other.”

― Mother Teresa

Rowan "Many CofE clerics are smug, arrogant and conceited"

Here's the full quote

"I used to think that the vicars that I played or the exaggerated sketches that were written about clerics, were unreasonable satires on well-meaing individuals, but actually so many of hte clerics that I've met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness, who are extraordinarily presumptiuous about the significance of their position in society. I believe that all the mud that Richard Curtis and I threw at them through endless sketches that we've done is more than deserved."

Ouch.

Just to clarify, this is Rowan Atkinson*, in an interview in todays Times magazine, which you have to pay to look at. There's also a reaction piece in the main paper, which must have been one of the easiest things Ruth Gledhill has ever written: couple of bishop quotes, and then every religion correspondents speed-dial favourites, the National Secular Society (never knowingly under-quoted). 

Having had a bit of a pop at my fellow clergy (and myself) a couple of weeks ago, I can't argue with Rowan Atkinson, though I guess a vicar who's humble, loving and gracious probably wouldn't get so easily noticed. I'm re-reading Peter Kay's autobiography at the moment, and he speaks both of his faith in some kind of God, and the many aspects of his Catholic upbringing which nearly put him off completely.

Anyway, our Harvest Festival tomorrow, here's what happened to Rowan (warning: rude words)

PS What's the betting Anglican Mainstream repost this one without checking?

* you didn't seriously think Rowan Williams would say this, did you? Thought it, perhaps.....