Those involved in the ecumenical conversation on the character and practice of Christian discipleship and ministry to serve the missio dei should welcome this sustained biblical, theological and practical reflection by Stephen Pickard. The book’s credentials arise clearly out of the overlapping contexts and roles in which the writer has ministered and learned: as bishop, parish priest, university chaplain, academic and theological educator.
His starting and ending points are intensely practical: the joy of ordained ministry, the need for spiritual maturity for collaborative working, the stresses of sharing power in teams and questions of how to be both friend and servant in public ministry. The book’s purpose is to contribute to the uncovering of theological principles to form more truly collaborative practice within the body of Christ, for the benefit of the world.
The base line for Pickard is that collaborative ministry is not a passing fashion but a practical demonstration of Gospel-shaped relationality and an expression of the true sociality that characterizes the created order. A key to this seminal work is the non-negotiable proposition that isolationist and individualist approaches to ministry are contrary to the practice of Jesus and Paul’s understanding of what it means to be members ‘one of another’ (Rom. 12.5). Pickard draws particular attention to a largely neglected insight that disciples and ministers are not only called to be Christ’s Body, but critically, to animate each other.
A pillar of his explorations of the dynamics of ministry is the rootedness of an understanding of ministry within ecclesiology and a growing reappraisal of trinitarian thinking. He sets his own exploration within the wide context of the Lima texts on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, the Porvoo Statement, denominational church reports, the renewed emphasis on koinonia and the life of the Spirit, the pioneering work on the diaconate by John Collins, the work of the late Edward Schillebeeckx on the primacy of charisma over institution, and the ongoing debate on the relation between general and ordained ministries in the church.
He appreciates the pioneering social trinitarian approaches to relational forms of ministry of the past fifty years. However, he is left with the question of what theology must further unfold to resource the complex tension between the ideal of collaboration and the exercise of power in historically formed hierarchical situations. Pickard shares the growing instinct of many that a naïve approach to a trinitarian patterning of ministry can show a deficiency in its capacity for dealing with difference and conflict.
Moving concepts of ordained ministry beyond a preoccupation with Christology is a vital element in many recent discussions. A recurring theme in Pickard is the unresolved tension within the tradition between the priesthood of the people of God and of the ordained. The comparison between a Nestorian split within Christology and two priesthoods, from below and above, is one that seems an apt way of describing ‘unsynthesized antimonies’ in this debate.
He reinforces the insight that if not only clergy, but all have vocations, the need to clarify the relations between different ministries must critically now be high on the agenda. He articulates a growing sense among theological educators that although the strong reaction in recent decades against clericalism was inevitable and necessary, there is a danger of ignoring the particular public representative role of the ordained.
Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive attempt to redress the contemporary reaction against the legacy of R.C. Moberly. He suggests that more recent contributions may rely more on his theory of representation than they might realize. However, I believe we should note how in pastoral practice during the fifty years from 1897 in which Moberly’s Ministerial Priesthood was continually reprinted as a textbook for ordinands, clerical ministry flourished at the expense of a largely passive laity. For me it raises the question how far theological discussion of issues of ministry are limited when held in isolation from the observation of role models or consideration of psychological and emotional triggers.
His contribution in chapter 12 to the development of an understanding of episcope as an expression of the corporate oversight of the whole church will strengthen a growing strand in the conceiving of the reciprocity of distinctive ministries.
Pickard’s discussion of priestly vows offers particular stimulus to liturgists, educators, spiritual companions and bishops in their responsibility for articulating and enacting the process of becoming and remaining ordained. In dialogue with Paul Ricoeur and David Ford, Pickard explores what he regards as the demise of the significance of the promises of those at the point of ordination. He argues plausibly that for those who have taken unique and solemn vows there must be a responsibility for the health and development of the corporate life of faith as well as personally, that reaches far beyond the Christian norm. Seductive as this argument is for redressing the move away from recognizing the representative nature of ordained ministry, it does need to be held in tension both with the significant recent literature on Christian discipleship and vocation and the potential for a renewed catechesis or process evangelism to restore the significance of baptismal identity.
There is a substantial bibliography. However, there are instances where the absence of reference to the more recent works of contributors to the field limits Pickard’s discussion. An example is that of John Zizioulas, whose key recent work on difference constituting unity would precisely meet anxieties about a trinitarian approach lacking the scope to work for collaboration within inherently hierarchical situations.
Essentially though, Pickard has provided a hugely valuable resource, couched in vibrant language, for engaging with pressing questions around the disjunctive relation between ordained and baptismal ministries. This is especially in recognizing the fragile, passionate, ‘one of another’ character of a church in which participants, in friendship, serve God’s mission. Here is encouragement to be courageous for bishops and all seriously engaged in evoking or leading reflective Christian ministry.
