Second Meeting with the Warden Of Ordinands

This is a Stub, designed to record as much as I can remember, for review

So, today I had my second meeting with the Warden Of Ordinands. There are a few things that I probably should mentions first. This is not the same person as the last one I met, and this one was armed with my application form.

We talked, or more precisely, she asked questions, and I talked. I was my usual (over) enthusiastic self. I tried to share my ideas, my feelings, and why I think I God has this design to me.

It appears that my fears were correct. I don’t have the right words. I don’t use the words “Worship”, or “Praise”, or the usuall Ecumenical words that they were expecting. I also, of course, keep talking. Rather like the Duracell Buny. I go on, and on, and on. I get on my soap-box, and just keep going. Good for people, bad for interviews.

Having only two hours, the Warden of Ordinands felt that we should have another meeting before I get to meet the Bishop. I think I would have been okay with this, but she then went on to say that she didn’t feel she could put me forward for the board in Febuary. This was a bit of a blow. IT means that the next chance is sometime in May, and then the final Board is in June. Typically, June 24, when I was hoping to still be on my Honeymoon. All in all, I ended up rather miffed.

There appears to be a lot of things that I need to think about. The Warden of Ordinands has said that she will send me an email with the “outcome”, so I have things to think about. It appears that I need to be able to sucinctly answer the question “What it means to be Anglican”, “What does ordination mean to you?”, as opposed to anything else. I think I really need to think about these questions, so with a bit of luck, I’ll work through each of them as a posting here, trying to find the words I’m looking for. In the board, I will only have a total of 50 mins to get everything accross, this really means that I have to learn to speak succinctly.

This means that my worry that “I don’t have the words” is true. It appears that despite assurances, you do actually need to know how to speak “Church” to get in. To that end, I shall try to gather the “words” that people need, to give them examples of the kind of answers that the Church here in the UK is looking for. I understand that there is only a small number of people that this information is going to be useful too, but hopefully I can help someone.

She can definatly see that I have a calling to ordained Ministry, and I’m not to loose the enthusiasm. There is still a chance I can get in in September. She asked me about how I got to be there, about my journey.

She said that there shouldn’t be a problem with the Marriage, but she did say that the final board (and last chance to get in this year) is on the 24th of June, which is when we were looking at comming back on our honeymoon. I guess I can’t have it all go my way. The place will be in north wales, so I’ve got a long drive from London Heathrow to North Wales.

Will has managed to get “through” to see the Bishop, and will be going forward for the board in Febuary. I think the idea that I wasn’t giong through made me sad. I was surprised at how much of a blow it was to find out that I was not moving forward this time.

I guess that there will be a reason why it happened this way. I guess if I don’t talk to the talk, then I can’t really walk the walk. Of course, this is an entry made on the night of the interview. I’m hoping that the email will help. I’m also going to go back and have a look at the two books I was given when I started “Being Anglican”, and “Preists and Ordination”, looking for that holy-grail answer “What does ordination mean to me?”

Apparently, My Life isn’t a good enough answer.

It is not good for a man to be without knowledge,
and he who makes haste with his feet misses his way.
— Proverbs 19:2

Black Xanthus