What's it like to be an Anglican priest?

[Shane R]

I did my first degree at Regent University, not the place in Vancouver where J.I. Packer taught but rather the one in Virginia Beach which was founded by the televangelist Pat Robertson. The curriculum was fine but most of the professors had a charismatic background. There was one class though, where I had a poor experience. It was the Old Testament survey course and the professor was militantly Pentecostal and opposed to traditional Christianity. She went ahead and took 15 points off the top from one of my papers because I wrote about the Apocrypha with a positive outlook. I suppose I could have asked for a review from some other professor in the department but I didn't see the value in that.

 

[RileyG]

Do you have a daily set pray routine?

 

[Paidiske]

Weelllll... in that regard, I'm afraid there's theory, and then there's reality. In theory, I have a daily prayer routine. In reality, it gets disrupted a lot. I do pray and reflect on Scripture every day, but in this parish (and this stage of parenting), I don't manage to do the kind of, set morning and evening prayer at similar times each day, thing as much as I would like. Which is frustrating, but I try not to beat myself up about it too much.

 

[RileyG]

Do you ever use the Anglican Rosary or the Jesus prayer as part of your prayer life?

 

[Paidiske]

I use an Anglican rosary sometimes. Particularly during times when my mental health is not so good, I find something about the sensory and tactile aspect of it, and the repetition of simple prayers, quite grounding.

 

[Shane R]

More often than not, probably 5 to 6 days a week, the regular time for evening prayer passes me by and I pray Compline instead. I've nearly memorized it.

 

[RileyG]

Side note: I love the Compline from the BoCP. It's beautiful I have the 1979 edition. (i think)

 

[Arcangl86]

Side note: I love the Compline from the BoCP. It's beautiful I have the 1979 edition. (i think)

It would be the '79 BCP if you are talking Episcopal Church. '79 was the first one to have Compline in it, though I don't know if the 2019 BCP used by some of the Continuing Anglican groups have it or.

 

[Shane R]

It would be the '79 BCP if you are talking Episcopal Church. '79 was the first one to have Compline in it, though I don't know if the 2019 BCP used by some of the Continuing Anglican groups have it or.

No Continuing church uses the 2019. That is ACNA's prayer book. They can't even get all of their dioceses to use it.

 

[Bob Crowley]

The EU and the Aussies most likely have better infrastructure and make their cities walkable compared to the USA.

Australian cities, like the US, are built around the car. In the old days when a lot of people didn't have cars, and there was also a stronger Christian base, there were local churches where people could walk, in cities anyway.

But these days most people have a car (with rising fuel prices to boot) and the rate of church going has dropped considerably.

Secondly most public transport is designed to go into the city centre and then out again. That's fine if the church happens to be located near a suitable transport hub (I'm thinking of one Catholic Church that backs onto a railway station when I say that), but that's rare except for inner city churches.

Unfortunately as my old pastor said to me once "If you know anything about church building, inner city church building is deadly. If you want to build a big church you go to the outer suburbs where the young families are". Young families in outer suburbs usually have cars, often more than one.

I suppose our parish is outer suburban verging on rural. We have three Catholic churches which keeps the single priest very busy. The closest one to me is about 5 kilometres, the next about 8 kilometres and the furthest (which I often attend) is about 20 kilometres. And, yes, I drive.

Our current priest is moving to another parish soon, and we'll be gaining a Nigerian priest who I just happened to meet today. He seems like a good bloke.

The Nigerian priest's current parish is based in a town called Childers and there are apparently five mass centres, including Childers itself. It's a 55km drive to one, 107 to the second, 46 to the third and about 38 to the fourth. That's to say nothing of pastoral visits. He does a lot of driving. So does the archbishop when he has to drive to Childers from Brisbane (about 312 kms).

It's all centred around the car these days, like the US and the West in general. We're very materialistic which is another reason Christianity is declining - we're too well off.

Our materialism reminds me of a story a friend of ours told me when he was doing some door knocking for his church. It was a hot, humid day and he was sweating and not having much luck. He came to one home and there was a bloke sitting next to a swimming pool, sucking on a stubby (short beer bottle) and looking much cooler than the door-knocker. In the driveway was a four wheel drive and next to it an expensive boat on a trailer.

The bloke said "What can I do for you?" Our friend looked around, mopped his brow and said "I'm here because I'm supposed to be telling you what you're missing out on!"

The bloke laughed. He was polite and they had a conversation but he wasn't interested. As he saw it, alll was well with the world.

 

[AlexB23]

Australian cities, like the US, are built around the car. In the old days when a lot of people didn't have cars, and there was also a stronger Christian base, there were local churches where people could walk, in cities anyway.

But these days most people have a car (with rising fuel prices to boot) and the rate of church going has dropped considerably.

Secondly most public transport is designed to go into the city centre and then out again. That's fine if the church happens to be located near a suitable transport hub (I'm thinking of one Catholic Church that backs onto a railway station when I say that), but that's rare except for inner city churches.

Unfortunately as my old pastor said to me once "If you know anything about church building, inner city church building is deadly. If you want to build a big church you go to the outer suburbs where the young families are". Young families in outer suburbs usually have cars, often more than one.

I suppose our parish is outer suburban verging on rural. We have three Catholic churches which keeps the single priest very busy. The closest one to me is about 5 kilometres, the next about 8 kilometres and the furthest (which I often attend) is about 20 kilometres. And, yes, I drive.

Our current priest is moving to another parish soon, and we'll be gaining a Nigerian priest who I just happened to meet today. He seems like a good bloke.

The Nigerian priest's current parish is based in a town called Childers and there are apparently five mass centres, including Childers itself. It's a 55km drive to one, 107 to the second, 46 to the third and about 38 to the fourth. That's to say nothing of pastoral visits. He does a lot of driving. So does the archbishop when he has to drive to Childers from Brisbane (about 312 kms).

It's all centred around the car these days, like the US and the West in general. We're very materialistic which is another reason Christianity is declining - we're too well off.

Our materialism reminds me of a story a friend of ours told me when he was doing some door knocking for his church. It was a hot, humid day and he was sweating and not having much luck. He came to one home and there was a bloke sitting next to a swimming pool, sucking on a stubby (short beer bottle) and looking much cooler than the door-knocker. In the driveway was a four wheel drive and next to it an expensive boat on a trailer.

The bloke said "What can I do for you?" Our friend looked around, mopped his brow and said "I'm here because I'm supposed to be telling you what you're missing out on!"

The bloke laughed. He was polite and they had a conversation but he wasn't interested. As he saw it, alll was well with the world.

Yeah, the 1950s-1970s changed the world, in some ways for the better, but in other ways for the worse. Cars have become a staple fixture in US, Aussie and Canadian lifestyles. Less community now also. Consumerism is on the rise also, now that inflation is decreasing. It seems that nobody ever learns when to stop buying into that stuff. Luckily for myself, I don't ask for a lot on Christmas, and neither do my parents or friends.

 

[RileyG]

Do you generally see parishioners on a daily basis or people coming in and out? Do you get a lot of phone calls? Or say spontaneous prayers?

 

[Paidiske]

Do you generally see parishioners on a daily basis or people coming in and out?

I do a lot here, as I just mentioned in the other thread, because we run a food bank three mornings a week. So between that, and services on two other days, the sort of organic contact with people is relatively high here compared to other places, without me having to seek it out. Tuesday is my quiet day, and is the day I often try to catch up on admin, write sermons, and do that kind of thing.

Do you get a lot of phone calls?

It varies, but sometimes, yes. Some days I feel like all I do is answer the phone!

Or say spontaneous prayers?

As in, with people, or on my own? I talk to God fairly conversationally a lot. In terms of spontaneously praying with people, I don't get asked for that as much, but it does happen.

 

[RileyG]

I do a lot here, as I just mentioned in the other thread, because we run a food bank three mornings a week. So between that, and services on two other days, the sort of organic contact with people is relatively high here compared to other places, without me having to seek it out. Tuesday is my quiet day, and is the day I often try to catch up on admin, write sermons, and do that kind of thing.

It varies, but sometimes, yes. Some days I feel like all I do is answer the phone!

As in, with people, or on my own? I talk to God fairly conversationally a lot. In terms of spontaneously praying with people, I don't get asked for that as much, but it does happen.

Fascinating! Thanks for answering

 

[The Liturgist]

fast church service could be: 1 three minute song to sing, 10 minutes of bible verses and explanation by the pastor, 5 minute homily, 5 minute communion, end of service. Just my shower thoughts.

I’ve seen Morning and Evening Prayer done as a said service within that timeframe. Once you add anything sung, it tends to elongate the service, however. In the case of Holy Communion, the service in the Book of Common Prayer if done mostly as a said service can be done in as little as thirty minutes, minus the length of the sermon, and assuming that one is using the old lectionary on an ordinary occasion with just one scripture lesson, usually an epistle, before the Gospel, as opposed to on the services of Palm Sunday where the Scripture lessons are immense.

 

[The Liturgist]

I do a lot here, as I just mentioned in the other thread, because we run a food bank three mornings a week. So between that, and services on two other days, the sort of organic contact with people is relatively high here compared to other places, without me having to seek it out. Tuesday is my quiet day, and is the day I often try to catch up on admin, write sermons, and do that kind of thing.

It varies, but sometimes, yes. Some days I feel like all I do is answer the phone!

As in, with people, or on my own? I talk to God fairly conversationally a lot. In terms of spontaneously praying with people, I don't get asked for that as much, but it does happen.

I very much like your approach.

 

[The Liturgist]

I did my first degree at Regent University, not the place in Vancouver where J.I. Packer taught but rather the one in Virginia Beach which was founded by the televangelist Pat Robertson. The curriculum was fine but most of the professors had a charismatic background. There was one class though, where I had a poor experience. It was the Old Testament survey course and the professor was militantly Pentecostal and opposed to traditional Christianity. She went ahead and took 15 points off the top from one of my papers because I wrote about the Apocrypha with a positive outlook. I suppose I could have asked for a review from some other professor in the department but I didn't see the value in that.

That’s really upsetting that she did that to you.

 

[The Liturgist]

Australian cities, like the US, are built around the car. In the old days when a lot of people didn't have cars, and there was also a stronger Christian base, there were local churches where people could walk, in cities anyway.

But these days most people have a car (with rising fuel prices to boot) and the rate of church going has dropped considerably.

Secondly most public transport is designed to go into the city centre and then out again. That's fine if the church happens to be located near a suitable transport hub (I'm thinking of one Catholic Church that backs onto a railway station when I say that), but that's rare except for inner city churches.

Unfortunately as my old pastor said to me once "If you know anything about church building, inner city church building is deadly. If you want to build a big church you go to the outer suburbs where the young families are". Young families in outer suburbs usually have cars, often more than one.

I suppose our parish is outer suburban verging on rural. We have three Catholic churches which keeps the single priest very busy. The closest one to me is about 5 kilometres, the next about 8 kilometres and the furthest (which I often attend) is about 20 kilometres. And, yes, I drive.

Our current priest is moving to another parish soon, and we'll be gaining a Nigerian priest who I just happened to meet today. He seems like a good bloke.

The Nigerian priest's current parish is based in a town called Childers and there are apparently five mass centres, including Childers itself. It's a 55km drive to one, 107 to the second, 46 to the third and about 38 to the fourth. That's to say nothing of pastoral visits. He does a lot of driving. So does the archbishop when he has to drive to Childers from Brisbane (about 312 kms).

It's all centred around the car these days, like the US and the West in general. We're very materialistic which is another reason Christianity is declining - we're too well off.

Our materialism reminds me of a story a friend of ours told me when he was doing some door knocking for his church. It was a hot, humid day and he was sweating and not having much luck. He came to one home and there was a bloke sitting next to a swimming pool, sucking on a stubby (short beer bottle) and looking much cooler than the door-knocker. In the driveway was a four wheel drive and next to it an expensive boat on a trailer.

The bloke said "What can I do for you?" Our friend looked around, mopped his brow and said "I'm here because I'm supposed to be telling you what you're missing out on!"

The bloke laughed. He was polite and they had a conversation but he wasn't interested. As he saw it, alll was well with the world.

That said Melbourne has the world’s largest streetcar or tram network. Every North American city used to have networks of similiar proportions to Melbourne, but now the surviving systems are much smaller, the largest being in Toronto and San Francisco respectively (San Francisco also has the most trolleybus lines, followed by Seattle and Vancouver, as they are good for climbing the steep hills). Only in Europe, in places like Vienna, Budapest, Milan and a few other cities (formerly Moscow and St. Petersburg, but their networks have shrunk dramatically) does one find a tramway on that scale. But in the past 30 years, Melbourne has gone from having the largest tramway network in the Southern Hemisphere to having the largest network in total.

Also, commuter rail in Melbourne and Sydney functions almost like a regional metro such as the RER in Paris, tbe S-Bahn systems in some German cities, for example, Berlin, where they are very Metro-like, the London Overground (a recently established system of suburban rail not to be confused with the Underground, however, the system does include the East London Line, which used to be part of the Underground), BART in the San Francisco Bay Area, WMATA in Washington DC or MARTA in Atlanta.

 

[Paidiske]

Having lived in Melbourne most of my life, and ministered there for years, I can tell you that unless you live and work very much in the inner city, you cannot rely on public transport to meet your needs. In my first curacy I had a supervising priest who didn't drive, and he was *very* happy to have me as his assistant, not least because suddenly he had someone who could drive him to hospital visits or on other errands.

 

[The Liturgist]

Having lived in Melbourne most of my life, and ministered there for years, I can tell you that unless you live and work very much in the inner city, you cannot rely on public transport to meet your needs. In my first curacy I had a supervising priest who didn't drive, and he was *very* happy to have me as his assistant, not least because suddenly he had someone who could drive him to hospital visits or on other errands.

Indeed, it is really unfortunate when good transit ends at the inner suburbs. This is de rigeur in the US. Only in European cities does one routinely find good transit away from the city center, for example, the RER and Tramway lines in Paris, and the S Bahn and Stadtbahn systems in Germany, with a few local exveptions, for example, in the US, Philadelpia has some suburbs with tram lines including a high speed interurban, and also a regional metro in addition to its regular system. And Montreal is building such systems. Likewise the Bay Area has BART, which is excellent tnroughout, and actually opened in the East Bay suburbs before the completion of the trans-bay tube into downtown San Francisco, and there are light rail lines in San Jose. Which is still less than ideal.

One US city where the transit system is consistent, if not especially good, even into the burbs, is Las Vegas. Still not having a car there would be frustrating, except on the Strip where driving becomes intolerable, but most locals seldom go down there.