Ministry and Me

Question: What does priesthood mean to you?

I have been an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament within the United Reformed Church of Great Britain and Ireland since 1990. I am accustomed to being known as The Reverend Margaret/Maggie Williams/Richmond. I accept the title as a sign of my particular role, tasks, and responsibilities. I have never seen it as putting me 'six feet above contradiction' but as a mark of respect. Within my family, being an ordained minister is relatively normal - both my maternal grandfather and a maternal uncle were also ordained ministers of the then Presbyterian Church in England.

However, I have never seen myself as being a Priest, although to be honest, there is part of me that is pulled toward that office. To me, the priestly function is one of being an intermediary between the divine and the human, the task of the priest being to offer to Godde the sacrifices of the people - be they physical or spiritual, for example, prayer. My theology is not one that requires either such an intermediary figure, or maintains a concept of Godde as a Being requiring the appeasement of sacrifice.

However, I have performed, countless times, the 'priestly' function of presiding at the Eucharist, of consecrating the bread and wine - 'doing the magic'. And I know the very real power that accompanies that, the sense of elevation beyond the material, into a different realm, a different reality. There is a danger, I think, in getting too caught up in that particular zone of consciousness, one that would separate me from others, from the good creation which is my current home.

Since I was ordained, I have maintained a non-stipendiary ministry. I firmly believe that it is crucial for people of faith, and especially the leaders of religious institutions, to keep one foot firmly on the ground, to know what 'ordinary' life entails. Therefore I have always earned my living outside of the church, and have served within the church, quite simply, for love, not for money or power or status or glory - which are the temptations more easily fallen prey to by those whose salary is bound up in their vocation. Oh yes, power corrupts, as much within the church as without it.

Also, to me, my work outside of the church is as much, if not more, a part of my Christian calling, my ministry, as that within it. I believe that we, as followers of the Way of Jesus, are called to adopt the model of the servant which he demonstrated to us all in so many ways, but particularly in the washing of his disciples' feet. We are called to love one another as he loved us, to be one another's servants, and to accept others as our servants - which is a lot less easy!

Service involves putting someone else first. For a minister I believe we are called to put Godde first - but Godde is present in and throughout the whole of Godde's creation. Therefore we are called to put the needs of others - be they human, plant, animal, or rock - before our own, not, as in the role of the priest, in terms of being their representative, their mediator, but more directly in terms of responding to need, to being alongside, to listening and feeling what is needed and responding to that.

Such a ministry is both very simple and totally demanding. It does not require the paraphenalia of priesthood - the robes, the artefacts, the liturgies, the consecrations - which is not to say that any of those things are necessarily bad or wrong: they are not; but neither are they strictly necessary. What is required is an attitude, an attitude of willingness to respond with a Yes to Godde and to Godde in creation.

We are all called to such ministry. Some of us are called to serve in particular ways, through leadership, pastoral care, preaching and teaching, and through celebrating the sacraments and leading the liturgy. This is only one form, one particular calling, among many. Each of us must minister according to the gifts that Godde has given us. Above all, we must honour Godde's call to each of us to be true to ourselves, to be the person we were born to be, and to live life in all its abundance. We are called to recognise Godde in our every day, and in every person, and every creature, and every thing.

So, if people want to call me priest or minister or reverend, that's fine, although I'd as soon they called me simply by my name. If they want to see me dressed in dog collar or otherwise aping archaic male dress, they'll be disappointed. If they want to see me in robes, ditto. Because it's not me that's important. And while I recognise and honour that I, and my fellow ministers and priests, may be seen as representing the Other in our midst, that Other also doesn't dress up or use peculiar language or rituals. Jesus is the one whose Way I seek to follow, and he had no use for artifice, for empty rhetoric; he went to the heart of the matter, teaching, healing, touching, holding. If I can to the tiniest degree bring such love into the lives of those I am in contact with, then I am content.

Whether I serve in the manner of a priest or a minister, a servant or a shepherd, it doesn't really matter: it is an honour to serve Godde and others in whatever way possible, and to know that, despite one's many failures and failings, there will always be another opportunity to be that portal, to guide others through that threshold, between the visible and the invisible.

Brother, sister, let me serve you; let me be as Christ to you:

Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.