Storyteller's World

A couple of years ago the Bishop invited me to become a Pastoral Selector for ABM, which is the board of the C of E that selects candidates for training for ordination. You might think this was the passport to real power, at last. But in fact it is a thrilling, fascinating and humbling experience. There are many horror stories about selection conferences that haven't worked, people who surely should have been selected but weren't. Maybe we can even think of some people who have been ordained, who should not have been ... But my one experience of serving as a selector left me with a great respect for the people who do this work, the process, which really is prayerful and spiritual, and most of all for the people who offer themselves, who are of such a high calibre.

One reason I've only done it once so far, is that the process is being revised (including a change of title from Selection Conference to Bishops' Advisory Panel), and tomorrow I go to London to be trained in the new procedures. They include candidates preparing a theological reflection on a subject of their choice, relating to one of the criteria for selection. In preparation, we were asked to write a reflection of our own on some topic relating to the criterion for Mission and Evangelism. This post is my first stab at it. Comments welcome, although I reserve the right to delete any of the variety 'If you went to a selection conference now, do you really think you'd be selected?' I've already worked through that one.