27/10/2019, Hugh writes: "I shall be leaving St James’s on 26 January 2020 after more than twenty seven years here as one of its clergy, and thirty years after my ordination (is that possible? It seems like yesterday). I have been something of an irregular cleric, in so far as I have viewed working full-time in the so-called secular world as the principal focus of my life as a priest. (If anyone is interested in a short explanation of this, I’ve posted something at www.passingthrough.uk/leavingchurch).
For a long time I’ve thought that because my vocation arose within the context of my paid work (I have tried to follow the model of the worker-priest), then once I stop that, it will be the time to quit as an active priest licensed to a parish. To my mind there is a logic in this, and more importantly, a faithfulness to my vocation as I have understood it all these years. I expect to retire from paid (secular) work in two to three years' time. The reason for this step now, and ahead of that, is because to finish both full time paid work and my active work as a priest in a parish at the same time would be more of a major change than I want, or need, to experience. Both spheres have been very important ones to me, and, crucially, they have been spheres in dialogue with one another. My time at St James’s has been, for me, a truly wonderful and hugely stimulating time. I am more grateful for this than I can say."
For a long time I’ve thought that because my vocation arose within the context of my paid work (I have tried to follow the model of the worker-priest), then once I stop that, it will be the time to quit as an active priest licensed to a parish. To my mind there is a logic in this, and more importantly, a faithfulness to my vocation as I have understood it all these years. I expect to retire from paid (secular) work in two to three years' time. The reason for this step now, and ahead of that, is because to finish both full time paid work and my active work as a priest in a parish at the same time would be more of a major change than I want, or need, to experience. Both spheres have been very important ones to me, and, crucially, they have been spheres in dialogue with one another. My time at St James’s has been, for me, a truly wonderful and hugely stimulating time. I am more grateful for this than I can say."
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