We have seen how the pattern of ministry in the Church of England has been dependent on an unrealistic memory of George Herbert’s brief time in a rural parish in the early 1600s. We have seen how men (and latterly, women) of integrity have attempted to apply this false pattern, “Herbertism”, in an industrialised urban society, with unimaginable (for Herbert) changes in economics, social structure and cultures. We have seen the cost of attempting to square the circle of Herbertism in the psychological studies of church life from the late 1990s and the description of burnout in the 1970s. You might feel, with me, that so far this has been an unremittingly negative process.

It is now time to sketch out the beginnings of an alternative way of being a parish priest. With a sense of the urgency attached to the Church’s mission¹ and a sense of urgency derived from the pain (at worst) and inconsequentiality (at middling) caused by exercising its priestly ministry, to answer this question: If we are to kill the George Herbert we meet on the road, then who or what do we put in the phantom’s place?

1. Christopher Lewis, et al., ‘Clergy work-related psychological health, stress, and burnout: an introduction’ in Mental Health, Religion & Culture, Vol 10/1 (2007), p. 2. [↩]