tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5581050.post3655741648822154556..comments2024-03-21T05:10:57.134+00:00Comments on Mustard Seed Shavings: This is not a conversation?Steve Tilleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400505989949096631noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5581050.post-75038167171233933102007-06-07T22:29:00.000+01:002007-06-07T22:29:00.000+01:00Cheers for the comment Tom. I guess the overall fe...Cheers for the comment Tom. I guess the overall feeling of the day may have generated dissatisfaction. My personal hope is that, however allegedly out of touch our senior staff are, we take the opportunities presented to us to contribute with good grace.<BR/><BR/>My diocesan bishop had to devote the bulk of two days last month to TV appearances following the imprisonment of a priest for sexual offences. Who am I to say that phoning each of us once a year would be as easy as it sounds?<BR/><BR/>I'm also unconvinced that any MD would keep in touch with 300 local staff. Are you sure? Wouldn't they have regional managers? And if they did wouldn't a 'Meet the staff' day be a good thing. I think my bishops are doing OK in a world more complicated than I can imagine and I want to support themSteve Tilleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17400505989949096631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5581050.post-28688935318801154392007-06-07T19:20:00.000+01:002007-06-07T19:20:00.000+01:00Guess the point of the post-it is that the Bishop ...Guess the point of the post-it is that the Bishop is NOT phoning to have a personal conversation in this exercise and perhaps his time would be better spent this with each clergy person over a period of time. <BR/><BR/>In no other organization that I have come across would be acceptable for a senior figure to be so out of touch with local staff as to need such an event. <BR/><BR/>As my dad once put it (a senior figure in the Church of England) if a Bishop has 300 so clergy sharing his charge then that is less that one a day - perhaps the + Peters would be better putting their energies into this.He would have been driven mad by the notion that a Bishop could ask for important things which clergy wanted to say to him to be written on a post-it - why not a side of A$ before the event.<BR/><BR/>I was advised by my pastoral tutor never to spend too much time apologising when visiting a neglected or forgotten parishioner - once you with them the important thing is not that you haven't called etc as perhaps you should have - but that you are there now. <BR/><BR/>I guess my question for the Bishops is whether or not the sheer numbers involved are bound to make such an encounter so impersonal as to be ultimately irrelevant or at best a hostage to the vocal and disatisfied or for ever be perceived as a token event.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5581050.post-82960886300644926082007-06-07T19:11:00.000+01:002007-06-07T19:11:00.000+01:00Steve, How about a murmur of clergy, and after som...Steve, How about a murmur of clergy, and after some sermons (none of yours, yet, I hasten to add) a confusion of parishioners.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com