Part of this increase undoubtedly comes through the settings of goals and targets and the delivery of weekends and training days where the focus is on the younger end of the Church and this is, for me at least a bit of a Curate's egg in that as much as I rejoice I am also just a little . . . . And that's the problem - I don't know what the word is!
As the person next to me is waxing lyrical about 'effective ministry' and quoting views that clergy are only effective in ministry to those living within plus or minus ten years (±10) of their own age the person the other side, nodding their agreement, adds cost-effective (the longer the ministry the cheaper the per capita training costs) to the conversation. A third voice joins in extolling the need to recruit more BME and a fourth voice adds, almost soto voce, "And many more women."
All stop talking to smile and nod and then, regaining their stride, continue as to which group we need to be most proactively recruiting. It is then that I throw a spanner in the works and take upon myself the role of token Ephebiphobic Mysogynistic Racist as I put forward the view that we need to be encouraging everyone to discern and respond to the calling upon their lives regardless of the labels we might affix to them!
The response was a complete stilling of conversation and the assembled gathering looking at me like I've just reenacted Peter Seller's amazing 'fart in a lift' scene (from one of the Pink Panther films). I am obviously a cleric who has forgotten their place and the prevailing attitudes of the church of which I am a part - so much so that it appears that I might actually be apart!
The problem with the CofE is that for many years we have compartmentalised and recruited only people of a certain kind. The old standards that were de rigeur in those days where the first son inherited the title and the estate, the second son joined the military and the third either became a gentleman farmer or entered the Church. Sad as it seems, then we looked less at calling and more about those we ordained fitting the bill and thus preserved that which was considered to be fitting for the clergy, now of course we don't do that - do we?
Today, having learned nothing we seek to redress the balance and recruit more young people, those who can lay claim to be from some ethnic group or are women, in the hope that by emphasising difference and including 'the excluded and marginalised' (their words - not mine) we might win others (who might otherwise not come) over to belonging to Church.
The problem is emphasised with a little example in that were I to enter a room where all but one of the people present were male, my greeting them with, "Good morning lady and gentlemen," would in fact be acting against sexual equality rules because I have drawn attention to them being female and isolated them from the rest of those present. The remedy to this is for me to say, "Good morning all," thereby offering an inclusive start to the proceedings and removing the potential for any one person to have any difference highlighted.
What, in my humble and limited capacity (and capability), we need to be doing is to assist ALL who are part of the Church to explore what calling God might have on their lives and to help them develop and follow whatever means is necessary to help them achieve it.
In a congregation where there is a mix of backgrounds I would hope that we would be seeing a mix of those coming forward for ministry - ordained and lay; evangelistic, pastoral, youth, prayer, musical and (heaven help us) administrative. Where there is a congregation with young people I would hope that we would be finding young people coming forward - I reckon you get the idea so let's stop the bus here.
We don't need to be engaging in more tokenism or the act of trying to stick people in the boxes (for I recall a friend who came from an Afro-Carribean background who upon exploring ordination was snapped up because of the 'dearth of black clergy' - they didn't seem to see him or his calling as much as they saw the opportunity to engage in tokenism of the very worst kind! He eventually gave up the ordination bit and left the Church too so disillusioned was he! A real lose/lose situation :-( ).
So I am confused because my colleagues are all championing the going out and making a point of recruiting those people who are from the lesser populations within the cleric mass, something that I see as a wrong move in the way they present it.
If we are saying that God's calling is for all people of all ages, colours, ethnic origins (after all, how many Dutch are there I wonder - am I part of an ethnic minority myself?) and sex then I am all for it - but that's not what I'm hearing and if what I'm hearing is voiced by others I haven't met then I have to say that I think they might just be wrong!
A quick postscript for the lovely people who have told me that the time has come for the Church to engage in positive discrimination and 'enhanced' career paths for people of minority groups:
First and foremost, we don't have a 'career path' - we have a calling and a ministry and:
If it has the word 'discrimination' attached to it then it is wrong (especially if you're the group being positively discriminated for) - it is hypocritical to speak against bias and then engage in it under the guise of being open-handed: And if you happen to be seeking to support bias for a group you are not part of then beware that you are neither engaging in tokenism or, worse still, engaging in being condescending.
