Leading In Service: The Priest I Admire

In the beginning

your friendly nod; glowing smile

God’s love is revealed.

Your fire from His word

Fuelling our inner flame;

Opening our hearts.

Divine conductor

of a symphony of prayer.

Makes life’s tempo beat.

It is Him we see

raising up that blessed host.

You, the self; shrouded.

You stand there for us.

No pride hungering for praise;

You are filled with His.

First as foot-washer;

an animating conscience.
Shuns all just rewards.

Every sense awake.

Fans the murmur, scent and glimpse.
Grows His seeds of love.

Called to live like Him

so that others may do too;

and learning from them.

Looks beyond our gaze

to the shadows of the fence.

Shepherd of all souls.

By your healing hand;

God and sinner reconciled.
Everlasting peace.

A friend once told me that the best thing about being a priest was that it allowed him to be himself. On that basis I think I have seen as many styles of priestly leadership as I have seen priests!

  
In ‘The Christian Priest Today’ Michael Ramsey describes the ‘priestly’ nature of leadership in terms of responsibilities of a priest first as a teacher, preacher and theologian; then as a minister of reconciliation, a person of prayer and of the Eucharist. In ‘Being a Priest Today’ Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown describe these responsibilities as states of ‘being’ – for the other, for God, for the Word, for Prayer, for Worship, for Reconciliation and for Blessing.

Only one priest has ever been perfect! I am thankful for having encountered many priests who have come close in different ways! All have helped me; and all of whom have responded to the call to priestly leadership individually. Their gifts have inspired the haiku above, which I have composed as my reflection on styles of priestly leadership I have seen – and what I admire.

Phillip Dawson Second Sunday of Epiphany
14th January 2018