The Dean

Perhaps it’s an ‘age thing’ but I really do not find modern comedy very funny. It’s no wonder British TV continues to show repeats from the past of ‘Dad’s Army’, ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and of course ‘Porridge’. When I feel a bit low, a few episodes of the ‘Two Ronnies’, particularly those wonderful songs, act as a pick-me-up and never seem to wear out with repetition.

I have always admired and respected Ronnie Barker for his clever wit, comedy writing skill and his perfectly timed comedy acting. When he was at the height of his career he decided to retire. What has

always fascinated me about any great artist is the way they know the painting, piece of music, or career is finished, complete. In an attempt to try and tentatively follow in their footsteps I too have decided to retire as from 31st May 2009.

By December 2009 I will have been ordained for 40 years which seems to me long enough for anyone to be expected to sustain any job or role, even being a parish priest. No doubt I shall continue doing things ‘vicars’ do, taking funerals, weddings and the occasional services, but there are other things in life I want to have a go at before I get too old.

I feel truly blessed that for nearly 40 years I have been able to do the one thing I always yearned to do as far back as I can remember; to be a priest in the Anglican Church. My time here in Bahrain has given me the opportunity to be the Dean and an Archdeacon but above all the privilege to continue being an ordinary parish priest.

With less than two years to go at school, when I was about 14, the headmaster of the secondary school I attended asked me what I wanted to do when I left school. I told him I wanted to be a priest in the Church of England. “Not a chance” was his immediate and definitive answer. “Forget it!”

Others around me (to whom I am eternally grateful) had other ideas, and after 7 years with the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham I achieved what I can now confidently claim as my God given vocation. Kelham gave ordinary men from unpromising educational backgrounds the opportunity to test their vocation and be challenged and guided to fulfill their call, their dream, their vision. The Church of England in its wisdom closed Kelham in 1972 and I sadly wonder why there are so few young men giving themselves to be challenged to the priesthood straight from school.

The heart of the Gospel of God is about God’s call, through Jesus, to all people irrespective of class and background and that includes young people. It is too often these people who can find no way into a meaningful encounter with the Christian faith let alone the church. “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14-15). Something of inestimable value was taken away from the Church and now we are seeing the results of that short sighted decision.

I am aware of the horizon of retirement ahead of me but I also feel the frustration and sadness that over the last 40 years the Church has gradually been turning inwards and lost its sense of adventure and daring to a professionalism that has increased its exclusivism. I pray that in my lifetime we may have the courage to turn outwards and welcome once again those who have become alienated, cut off and excluded from the one God who calls all people to himself.

Alan Hayday