It’s the hardest work I ever have to do, and among the most rewarding. It involves meeting extraordinary people who are gifted, committed and keen, praying with them, talking to them, and trying to discover with them, what God wants them to be doing with their lives.
It involves travelling away from home, then working four long days at a stretch with no time during those days for personal withdrawal (essential for an introvert like me.) Sleeping in a strange bed, but not being able to sleep even when you try, because you’re so keyed up with the effort and excitement of it all.
It involves working intensively on your own, writing reports into the small hours of the morning. Then meeting up with a team of others during the following day (eyes propped open with matchsticks) to compare what you have all written and agree a final version.
It involves letting all that go at the end of four days, and having to preserve confidentiality almost as if you had never been a part of those people’s lives: you are supposed not to have any further contact with them, even to find out how they’re getting on.
When the Bishop first asked me if I would act as Pastoral Adviser on a Bishops’ Advisory Panel for the selection of people for training for ordination, I was well chuffed that he thought highly enough of me to put my name forward to MinDiv. And thought, “This is real power – at last!”
It’s no such thing, of course. What it is, is a real privilege, to meet and walk with people at such a crossroads in their lives. To my surprise one of the people there this week, had googled BAP and found something I blogged about the experience last time round. So I’d better not blog about it again. And of course, I could tell you exactly where I’ve been this week, and who else was there, and what the results were – but then I’d have to kill you.
