Reimagining Ministerial Formation
David Heywood
SCM Press £25 2021 xii + 181pp
(978-0-334-06042-0)

The middle over fast flowing river with some unpredictable storm clouds on the horizon is not the best vantage point from which to stand back to discern and evaluate. I read this third volume of Heywood’s work through the lens of leading Sarum College, a regional provider of ministerial and theological formation and learning. I am coming up to nine years of negotiating, enabling, responding, and supporting this community and its place within the wider ecology of Academy and Church.

There is very little new knowledge or information here. I recognise many of the questions that are continuing to be asked about identity, process, culture, and delivery. However, Heywood demonstrates skill especially in his analysis of the present climate in this and his two preceding volumes. You will find a careful attention to detail combined with a wide network of individuals and groups that have been consulted. 

Four Chapters focus the reader on this organising question: what the future of ministerial formation is.  What would formation for all the people of God look and feel like can integrate the spiritual, the intellectual and the practical? What would we need to do together to enable this learning to be life long, agile and collaborative? What are the connections between worship, pastoral care, and social action?

There is a great deal of wise and constructive narrative and argument throughout this book. Heywood writes with clarity and wisdom. He models clarity and fastidiousness in meticulous referencing of sources. The chapters are shaped by vision of the Kingdom where the community of the baptised share and participate in the mission of God. Those responsible for pastoral presence and engagement need to know themselves both from within and without. We should be people whose self-knowledge is grounded in healthy emotional patterns of commitment to relating and growing in self-awareness.  In all of this perhaps we need to know the difference between good and bad religion and how a generative theology can be nurtured in ministry. This is a playful journey unafraid of risk, human vulnerability, the imagination and perhaps even a readiness to be honest with one another about what makes us angry.

At various points in this book this reviewer was looking for the possibility of some articulation of the possible weaknesses of how this re-imagining might land in parish, community, deanery, Diocese, theological education institution or indeed the General Synod of the Church of England!  Certainly, vision is persuasively expressed through analysis but there is little help for those who might want some practical help about how holistic engagement with reflective learning might be actualized in and through the everyday messiness and hyperactivity.  

Christendom has always changed, and we are living within a particular moment of change characterised by what feels to be a steady and inexorable decline. This may lead to many feeling high levels of anxiety and disillusionment. It has certainly led the Church of England into a commitment to support forms of formation and models of church that are proving popular in relation to both numbers and morale.  It will be interesting to invite some of these communities into dialogue with Heywood and explore what place theology might have in a re imagined future. It is just possible that a smaller church could be a more agile creative and effective presence in communities. This however would mean some significant ecclesiological and organisational change. It could be that it would follow that any renewal of collaborative ministerial practice might lie more with the local church rather than with ministerial education. If we believe that theology makes a difference then we need more creative, grounded, and radical wisdom rooted in our traditions.

There are two areas that I would wish to contest in this book. The first is that it is possible to take the shape and tradition of academic theology and break it open for a wide range of individuals and groups who come into this venture with varying life experiences and aptitudes. A community of formation can empower and energise women and men into learning that shapes practice and offers a range of opportunities for faithful and imaginative discipling. A new generation of ministers (here at Sarum) know how important it is to handle Holy Scripture, engage in theological reflection, empower community and social action alongside and attention to a prayerful life. It is a regular practice to engage in theological reflection and these are times when this community has experienced a very wide range of students putting their theology to work. Theological reflection is always shaped by understanding of Christian doctrine and is a key part of enabling a new generation of lay and ordained ministers to speak compellingly of God.

Of course, on this side of time, there is always, as those responsible for formation there is a need for Critical self-reflection and a vision that take us deeper. Heywood has provided a careful and wise framework for some of this planning.

I share Heywood’s view that part of a new future for ministerial formation needs to lie within the concept of a resource hub serving and dispersing learning and equipping for a wider range of ministries. We certainly need to less more creatively!  In this mix we also need a variety of places of learning and approaches to ministerial formation that are residential, blended, contextual and rooted within the rich diversity of our Anglican tradition.

One final thing. All this ‘re-imagining’ needs finance as well as vision, stamina, and courage. Without a reimagining of the finances of the church we got the moment is very much shaped by a particular ecclesiological outlook, it seems that the aspirations expressed here will be seed sown on stony ground.