What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Love your church minister

    No – not me. Well, you can if you like. But more an invitation to head over to Malcolm Round’s blog and read a post that he wrote a couple of weeks ago which has now been read by thousands of people, being copied and referenced all over the web.

    Malcolm has really hit a nerve in writing about how congregations treat their clergy – beginning with this:

    Sadly the Christian church is littered with good people who have left the ministry because of the pain, the criticism, and the lack of support they’ve got from congregations. Some Christians assume they can behave in a church setting in a way they’ve never be allowed to in a work setting. Minister abuse is much more common than is talked about.

    I know exactly what he is talking about and very many clergy will know it all too well.

    Malcolm raises a number of very pertinent questions that I think need a lot of talking about. The most striking questions this piece prompts for me are these:

    • What level of discipline should exist in a voluntary organisation like a congregation, particularly when the congregation has an ethos of inclusion and welcome? After all, churches tend to exist for the purpose of adding more to their numbers. How do they manage anti-social and particular anti-clerical behaviour?
    • In my own denomination, what part does the anti-clericalism that is the unfortunate and entirely unnecessary product of so many of our conversations about affirming lay ministry play in this?
    • Who cares for the pastors of the church and how?

    The bad behaviour that Malcolm talks about leaves him saying:

    Such treatment sadly has become normative in the ordained church life.  Which is one of the reasons I personally will virtually never support anybody going into full-time ‘ordained’ parish ministry.

    When a senior church leader says that then the rest of us ought to be paying attention and carrying on a serious conversation about it. This is important and significant stuff.

    So, hop on over to Malcolm’s blog and take a read.

    , ,

One response to “Reaching the Unconnected”

  1. David Kenvyn Avatar
    David Kenvyn

    The way the story has been presented in the press is somewhat misleading. What Glasgow Libraries are offering is not a new service. ICT equipment and training has been available in libraries throughout the UK, since the Blair government made the funding available in 1997.

    One of my first tasks in East Dunbartonshire was to write the successful bid for government funds from what was then known as the People’s Network. PCs, because that was the cutting edge technology at the time, were installed in libraries across the UK. Buddies were recruited for training programmes. People were taught, and can still be taught to use the appropriate technology in classes run through the various library services.

    Unfortunately, once the initial tranche of funding was exhausted, libraries were required to have their own sustainability programmes, but no funding was ring-fenced for this purpose.

    It is hardly surprising that there are differences in digital uptake between Dowanhill and Possilpark, or between Shawlands and Cardonald. Glasgow Libraries are now trying to deal with that digital difference, without any funding from the Scottish or UK Governments to do so. It is my view that they should be applauded for this initiative, which is an extension of the work that has been done over the last 18 years.

    You are quite right to say that this is a social justice issue. It is also vital to the success of the economy of the country. Perhaps we need to think about the creation of a new tranche of funding so that libraries can offer the cutting edge resources in ICT that people across Scotland need.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • What am I listening to?

    Oh, thank you for asking again. It is a long time since you did. I’ve still not exhausted the wonderful Harmonia Mundi 50 Years Boxset that I bought at Christmas. 30 fabulous CDs for about £30. Glorious If I’m bopping, I’m probably bopping along to Elvis Ain’t Dead and sniggering at the phrase Scouting for…

  • Equality Training for Bishops?

    Leaving aside the Hapless Rowan story for a moment, let us just give thanks that John Reaney’s legal case has come to its conclusion. He has been awarded £47000 for the discrimination that he suffered. There has been little sign of remorse from the cleric in question, the Bishop of Hereford, who was given Stonewall’s…

  • Hapless Rowan #2

    The thing is, what the ABC needs right now, is a bunch of clever left-leaning liberal intellectuals in sympathy with the church sorting all this mess out and standing up for him and spinning the story in a different direction. It could be done. Those kind of people are people like me. Such people, he…

  • Hapless Rowan

    So, Rowan Williams has suggested that sharia law is inevitable in the UK and now is having to face the angry mob who just don’t understand him. The thing it, Rowan Williams is quite logical in suggesting that a special religious law could be part of the law of the land – we already have…