Provincial Board (Part 2)

For those of you with short memories (or don’t really want to scroll down to view the last post), this is a post about my experiances at the Provincial Board. The Provincial Board is the final personality test on the journey towards being able to start the training to become (hopefully) a Vicar in the Church in Wales.

After the interviews was something called “Ten Minuit Topics”. This was where we each had to chair a discussion on a topic that we picked out of a hat ( or in this case, from the top of a table). We were given a small amount of time to think about it, then we had to introduce the topic, 7-8 mins of discussion, followed by a minit to sum up what the group had discussed. The task was fairly straight forward, and showed how we acted both as part of a team, and as a leader of a team. We covered things like “what should be on the agenda for the Lambeth Confrenence” through to “Will rising energy prices force us to be more green?”. The latter being the top I managed to pull out. The problem that I found with this one, wasx that we all generally seemed to agree on the answer. Bill started off with “this is a rich-man’s question”, which was correct, but seemed to me to move away from the issue at hand. It was very difficult to get anything of a disscussion going, as most people seemed to see it as something they would just have to live with. No-one seemed to take the bait that if we all abandoned our cars, the car companies would have to do something about it.

So, on to the next round of Interviews. Pastoral again. This interview mostly focused on my Past with Sarah. It was during this time that I did most of the strangest things that I’ve ever done in my life. None of the peasant, all in the name of “love”. I lived on 5 pound a month to feed myself, the dog, and Sarah, that kind of thing. OF course, the way it reads on the application form was that the blame was firmly placed on Sarah. That’s not true. I could have said no. I should have focused on what were the real problems, and let Sarah do her childish throwing her toys out of the pram and ignored her. I was young, and things are always different when you feel invincible. I was asked what I was going to do if the answer was “no”. I said, truthfully, “I didn’t know”.

That done, we had a bit of Lunch, and despite being told at the begning of the seminar to try and sit somewhere else, Bill and I still managed to end up sat next to each other.

After Lunch I found myself with some time. I spent this wrighting the “thought for the day”, which I was quite proud of, like I said, when I get a minit, I’ll post it up here. It was quite an experiance to write in such a serene palce. I left my door open, it felt only right, in case someone wanted to pop their head in. It made the room feel bigger, and the flow from my window out into the gardens of St. Deiniols was brilliant.

Then it was time for the Educational interview. One of the few that I thought that I would do well at. I love the idea of being able to dig into the Bible, to learn about it’s history, about the type of lives that people led then, to have some of the pieces explained to me. I was enthusiastic about learning.. and then the question that I wasnt’ really expecting. What education in theology had I had so far. Well.. short of the weekly Bible study with the Vicar, none. This didn’t seem to go down well. Then they asked about the discussion group. I was quite proud that we had all kinds of religions comming along, ranging from Pagans, through to budists, through to Aetheists, and of course, Christians. Apparently this was bad, because I didn’t have any learning in Christianity, and they didn’t want Christians wandering off the path. I’m sorry.. what? I’ve got Aetheists, Budists, Christians and Pagans around the table having a discussion. No arguments, no quibbles. I guess this was from the mantra that Christians should convert people, because people who’ve made their religious decision need to be shown how wrong they are. I don’t think I need to say how much I disgree with that idea. At the end of this interview, there was a lot of conversation about where I could get the information I was looking for, because you don’t get into the Preisthood these days without some form of knowledge of Theology. I was… crushed, confused, and a little annoyed.

I had a few words with others that were there. I’m always quite willing to share my heart. They seemed to feel that It wasn’t something I needed to worry about if I could convince the others.

It was then the time of another group discussion. This time we were playing the part of a “Parochial Advice Comitee”. We weren’t quite sure what one did, but we had a stab at it anyway. Again we had a situation laid out for us, that we were to talk about until such time as the selectors got bored. The main thing that I remember about this disucssion, was in order to save time, when Terry suggested that we have a discussion about who should chair the group, I said that we didn’t need one as we knew each other fairly well, and if we found we needed one, we’d re-visit the vote for a leader. Everyone seemed to agree with that. The downside was was that after asking for note-takers (Debbie and Amanda), I then proceeded to lead the group. Not in any intentional way, but more trying to keep people on the point, and to try to keep the group’s focus. I found that they seemed to get engrossed in teh first point, and trying to move them down to the other points was very difficult. Just as we had finally started getting somewhere, the task was eneded by the Selectors. It was very strange to have the plug suddenly pulled like that.

The evening was rounded off with some prayer, and then we all went off to the pub. This second night was a lot more relaxed than the first, and we actually started to have fun. It probably would have gone on for a bit were we not all sensible and realised that we were getting up again, and still had another interview to face before a debrief, then leaving. I gathered the email addressess of people by dint of being the only one with Pen and Papaer.

Some time in the early morning, I woke up with a list of things that I needed to tell people. Things I thought I really must mention, so when I had my final interview with the secretary (who doesn’t have a vote, but has the “ear” of the selectors, I ran through them.

• I felt I had given the impresion that “Prayer” was a new thing. I wanted to say that I had been “praying” all my life, just not the structured prayer that I was currently doing. They of course asked if I felt that structured prayer added anything. This was not a question I Was prepared for. I answered the best I could, that it gave me time that I could just simply be with God, and Jesus, and a time when I could go through all the things that I had done that I wanted to improve, offer them up, and try to change. I’m not sure if that answer was good enough(this I also said to the vocational selector)
• I felt that I may have misrepresented myself when I said “I didn’t know what I would do if the answer was “no””. I felt that, given the way my life was going since I started walking this path, God would provide. I told this to the Selector. He seemed happy about the answer. Thought that wasn’t really him giving anything away, he was always helpful
• I may have given the impression that the discussion group was about “teaching” people, rather than simply about discussion. I also wanted them to know that the Vicar was aware of the group, and trusted me to run it. To date, I had not had any complicated questions, but we had only had “big airy” conversations, just about sharing ideas. I gave this to the secretary, because I didn’t think I would have a chance to talk to the education selector. She said that there were times when the selectors have to push hard to see how people react. I just hope this was one of those times, and that my clarification was enough

The itnerview with the Secretary also included a bit of roleplay about what I would do when I came face to face with a fundamental evangelical. I had to show (again) that I was able to keep ahold of my temper, and try to talk to them, see if they could see reason. I hope it was enough.

So, that done, there was the debrief. Here we were told that it was going to be a maximum of 14 days before we heard anything. I know that my DDO is going to want to tell me in a meeting, so that he can give any pastoral care that may be needed (whether the answer is yes or no). IT is currently day 10. Still no news yet.

My fingers are still crossed.

~ Black Xanthus