Talking Books: The Bishop and the Baptized by Justin Pottinger course
Introducing an exciting new series online with Sarum College!
It’s hard to keep up with the endless flow of publications. In this termly series of ‘Talking Books’, we shall invite an author to break open their writing to reflect on new ideas, different ways of looking at our world and the development of our own wisdom.
This term we welcome Justin Pottinger to talk about his new book, The Bishop and the Baptized.
The Lost Shepherd
The Church of England is at a pivotal moment: new Archbishop of Canterbury, potential schisms over the role of women and same-sex relationships, alongside low levels of attendance and a disinterested wider society. A variety of borrowed and skewed leadership models have been tried, but what does our own liturgy have to tell us about who we are and how we should relate to one another?
Ordinations often look like graduations or even initiations into an exclusive club. They are neither. They are the Church gathered, invoking the Holy Spirit to come and establish a new relationship between those being ordained and the rest of the baptized. This new relationship is not one the undoes their common baptism or previous ordinations, but rather one that depends on each of them and roots leaders in the community.
In this short course, we will use the ordinal as our guide in articulating our priorities, drawing on clear, although often misunderstood, paradigms that will help us reclaim our shepherd leaders and be God’s people.
Justin Pottinger read Theology at Keble College, Oxford, and trained for ordination at STETS and Cuddesdon. He has an MTh from Oxford in Applied Theology and a PhD from Lambeth Research Degrees. His academic interests lie in the intersection of liturgy, spirituality and ecclesiology, and his book, The Bishop and the Baptized, is published by SCM. He has ministered in a market town, rural benefice and as a rural dean. Currently a school chaplain, he is married with two children and is a Benedictine Oblate.
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