The Pastoral Nature of Ministry

Generations of clergy have been accustomed to assume that pastoral training is concerned with the practical side of their ministry: how to organize, how to visit, how to hold the baby when baptizing. Ultimate questions of purpose and value were ignored. Often this can still be the case, but such an approach inevitably seems superficial when the question haunting any minister explicit or unspoken, is 'what am I for?' This is the question which Frank Wright never allows to be forgotten. Without vision, he argues, there can be no effective pastoral ministry. And vision means above all the refusal to escape into clerical havens of parochial organization and liturgical reform and the acceptance of the real demands made on anyone who tries to be a real pastor and counsellor. This book is short, vivid, down-to-earth and easy to read; at the same time it is demanding reading, because what it recognizes as the essentials of the ministry ask so much: openness, insight, self-awareness, unlimited caring. Paradoxically, much of what Frank Wright says stresses the essential humanness of the pastor and his ministry, blurring yet further the lines between priesthood and the rest of the world; yet as in so many other spheres, loss is gain, and what finally emerges is indeed a vision which could give new purpose to pastoral care. This is a very good book. In my opinion it is a must for all clergy and ordinands, no matter of what denomination and churchmanship. Because of its direct simplicity of style, combined with the depth and insight of its message, I would also hope that it would reach a much wider readership among all those who are concerned with pastoral ministry, ordained or lay' (Theology). If it were possible I would make a present of this book to all who are "called to minister" on the strict condition they read it again and again' (Methodist Recorder).