21 August 2025

In assessing people for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, the assessors explore their sense of vocation. This is all tied up with their understanding of how they got to National Assessment Conference. They have a unique story to tell about God’s involvement in their life.

In his introduction to ‘The Schoolmaster’, AC Benson writes about vocation and a type of clergyman for whom vocation did not play an immediate part. He is writing in 1902 and so I am not sure whether this character did not persist and for what reason. Nevertheless, here he is.

‘Many a man who  took orders did so because the position was one which implied no great strain; which afforded possibilities of sport and quiet society and agricultural occupation. Such men had no burning desire to save souls or to supply the water of life to thirsting parishioners. In many cases they were aware that the parishioners to whom they intended to minister had no more desire for spiritual sustenance than they had for imparting it.

But such men often turned out admirable clergymen. They were honest, kind, straightforward, virtuous; and they found moreover that any profession which brings a man into close relations with men and women is apt to soften and deepen the heart.

The sight of poverty and suffering and death has a wonderful effect upon the human spirit, and such men often gained, as life went on, a pastoral if not an apostolic character. The very words of the liturgy, that meant but little to them at the beginning of their career, became charged with tender meanings and holy associations.’

Whereas the motivation is unexpected, the vocation begins to grow the more the holder of the office keeps faith with what he is called to do. For some, time diminishes the sense of vocation but for others it deepens, enriches and purifies what is at the heart of it all, love of fellow human beings, love of Creator God.