Spring2012 To Answer the Call…


No this is not another article about a solicitor deciding late in his or her career to requalify as a barrister so please read on..


Liveryman Andrew Bond, Manches LLP


I am currently a partner in Manches LLP specialising in commercial property law. I have for a long time been involved in my local parish church (and indeed in the wider Anglican Church having been brought up in Kenya and a member of the congregation at All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi) and for several years (several too many I fear) I was Lay Chair of the Deanery Synod in the part of Berkshire where I live. I had for some considerable time given thought to offering myself as a potential candidate for the ordained ministry and in a conversation with my then Bishop (Bishop Stephen Cottrell currently Bishop of Chelmsford) I discussed this with him as I was intending to stand down as the Lay Chairman of the Synod.


His answer was clear and precise – he felt I should submit myself to God and the church process to see where it led! And so the process began. I had absolutely no knowledge of the procedure which is long and drawn out. It involves lengthy meetings with a priest in the Diocese (in my case the Diocese of Oxford) who then puts forward a recommendation to the Bishop. The Bishop then recommends you are sent away to a selection conference – yes one of those where you are gently grilled over three days and your every move is watched, and not only by God!


Having successfully negotiated these hurdles I then embarked on the Oxford Ministry Course at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford. This is a three year part time course involving attendance at theological lectures every Tuesday evening of academic term time, two residential weekends away and a Summer School lasting eight days. Topics studied include detailed studies of the Old and New Testament, Pastoral Care, Death, Dying and Bereavement, Christian Initiation (Baptism), Marriage, the Reformation and detailed church history, the meaning and significance of the sacraments (to include the Eucharist), and Psychology and Sociology. There was an interesting module on behaviour in the workplace – a module that many firms might like to use as part of their training process! These are just some of the disciplines covered. I have also undertaken two placements to shadow those in full time ministry – one was at the chaplaincy of Great Ormond Street Hospital where I was deeply moved and affected by what I saw and by the outstanding work of the chaplain and his team. And of course I was immensely impressed and moved by the skill of the world leading consultants who


make it such an amazing place. Perhaps we should lay on an event as City Solicitors for the benefit of that amazing hospital?


It is an intellectually demanding course and made all the more challenging by having to undertake a huge amount of theological reading in your own time on top of a demanding job. It is also hugely rewarding. Those on the course come (as you would expect) from many different occupations and walks of life and are of all ages – schoolteachers, company directors, social workers, retired individuals, the forces, the law (!) (and even accountancy!) and those whose careers had been curtailed by bringing up a family.


The academic staff at the college is made up of an incredibly gifted group of theologians most if not all who lecture within the Theology School at the University of Oxford. Their task is to teach, to counsel, and to inspire the students known as ordinands (and to encourage those who have fears and doubts) as they approach ordination. The friendships made from both the student cohort and the academic staff will I am sure last a lifetime.


To return to my personal story I am now entering the last three months of my training and I, along with several close friends, will attend a silent retreat at the end of June for three days – prior to ordination on the 30th June at Christ Church, Oxford (this is all subject to approval and recommendation by the college and the Bishop for this final awesome step). What lies ahead is further training first as a Deacon, and then a Priest a year in, working closely with a parish priest. I will, along with many I have trained with, be a self supporting (i.e. voluntary) minister in the Church of England. With added pressures on resources the church looks to many to give of their time to ministry on a voluntary basis –who will support those in full time fully paid ministry. The support of professional colleagues in the firm makes this all possible – and thereby makes it possible for the ministry of the church to be open to many who would otherwise not be able to offer themselves for service in this way.


These are challenging times for the church, as devotees (like me) of the BBC TV series “Rev” will know. They are though exciting ones too and if through this article just one person feels a call to serve their faith community in this or a similar way then I for one would be thrilled.


City Solicitor • Issue 77 •13


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