Who is your Priest?

That man who called the community together and held it together; he would not be the one who knew the most theology, the theologian.  He would not be the preacher or the evangelist of the community.  He would not be the prophet.  He would not be the most important member in the community, in the sense of being the one who was to make the most important contributions, of which the community might someday be capable.
But he would be the focal point of the whole community, the one who would enable the community to act, whether in worship or in service.  He would be the animator of the individual members of the community, enabling them to make their various contributions, enabling the preacher to preach and the teacher to teach and the prayer to pray and the prophet to prophesy.  He would be the necessary sign of the power that is in all of them.  He would be the sign of unity that exists among them.  He would be their link with the outside, the sign of their union with the outside, the universal church.  He would be their priest.

Vincent Donovan - Christianity Rediscovered

Technorati Tags: Books: Christianity: Church: Church of England: Community: Leadership: Missional: Ordination: theology

Comments

[St]

Wow. Love it. Thanks.

[Bishop Alan Wilson]

I've been plugging Vincent Donovan hard, as the person from whom I think I've actually learned what pioneer ministry is supposed to be. It's amazing how his work crops up again and again in missional contexts.

And when people have read Vincent Donovan, the next missional writer for me is Roland Allen (former Vicar of Chalfont St Peter), with a very similar concept of the role of priests as enablers and stewards rather than Lords over the Church

[ron cole]

Great quote Mark...we rediscover who the priest is, we can then re-imagine church.

[Steve Hayes]

Hmm, that implies that there is a single priest in a community, and I'm not sure that that's right. Sounds more like the rector, who perhaps need not actually be a priest.

[Andrew Anderson-Gear]

Thanks for this Mark - a great quote which speaks to me of the collaboration of all the community in ministry and servant leadership on the part of the priest.