There is a memorable scene from the history of the 19th-century European colonial exploration of Africa.\u00a0Sir Henry Morton Stanley had been deployed from England and had trekked across East Africa searching for missionary and explorer David Livingstone. After months of searching, he finally found him, and according to the story, he famously says, \u201cDr. Livingstone, I presume?\u201d<\/p>\n
It is with much anticipation that we turn our collective eyes toward Oxford and the Advance trip that is planned for the Fall of 2019.\u00a0 Along with all the sights and sounds of London, and the history, scholarship and beauty of Oxford, the one name that has been lifted up again and again to our group is Martyn Percy. \u00a0Dr. Percy serves as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, he is an Anglican priest, an academic, and a reforming leader. \u00a0Based on many of the essays in Reasonable Radical? Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/em>, it appears that Percy is also seen as a pastoral figure who cares deeply about the church and her people.<\/p>\n In one of the essays, entitled \u201cThe Prudent Priest\u201d, Lyndon Shakespeare describes a central tenet of Percy\u2019s theology as understanding the \u201c’ecclesial\u00a0terroir<\/em>\u2019 that defines and shapes church communities.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0He references Percy\u2019s own focus on the way that \u201cthe \u2018ecclesial terroir<\/em>\u2019, is something that a minister needs to be able to read sensitively and deeply if they are to cultivate congregational life and offer connected parochial ministry.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0Another word for this is context, the distinctive setting where a pastor and congregation are located.<\/p>\n For pastoral leaders to thrive in ministry, understanding and getting to know the context is key, as any real ministry done in that terroir<\/em>, will need to be something that can truly take root there and grow.\u00a0 This kind of practical, earthy ministry wisdom may seem surprising coming from an Oxford academic.\u00a0 However, in reading through the essays and reflections contained in this book, it becomes clear that Percy is someone whose scholarship and leadership is always pointed toward the building up of the church.<\/p>\n In one passage, an author reflects that \u201cin sum, pastoral leadership for Percy is fundamentally centered on role and identity rather than any particular outcome.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 This insight harkens directly back to our previous reading about the image of pastoring as mothering from Emma Percy.\u00a0 (It may be no surprise that the two authors share a last name).<\/p>\n The point that is being made about pastoral leadership is that for Percy, the identity of someone as a leader, their presence, their approach, the way that they are as they seek to minister, is as important (if not more so) than any \u2018particular outcome\u2019.\u00a0This is part of Martyn Percy\u2019s larger agenda against the \u2018corporate management approach\u2019 to church leadership, which he has worked against within Anglican church circles.<\/p>\n In an essay circulated online, Percy argues that \u201cManagerialism, when it is good, and the servant of the institution, can bring valuable support \u2013 even liberation. When it is the master of the institution, however, it can be life-sapping, not life-giving; an agent not of renewal, but of ennui. Managerialism will still prod and stimulate the lifeless body, and it can give the appearance of creating movement and animation. But in truth, the Zombie Church has arrived. We are merely watching death warmed up.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n His fear is that a \u201czombie church\u201d, which is still standing in body, but is empty of spirit or life on the inside is where the Anglican church is being led.\u00a0The specific malaise that Percy is addressing is the management approach of church leadership, which is solely outcome and results-oriented, in the way a corporate board might be.\u00a0 His concern, is with the heart of the church, with its life and health from a spiritual standpoint.<\/p>\n Part of the reason that a book like this one, full of essays and responses has come into being, is that Percy has had a deep and wide impact on the conversations of the Anglican Church.\u00a0 He has been a voice that people have listened to, argued with, been offended by, and ultimately, respected over a long period of time.<\/p>\n Through the essays in this fine book, as well as the outside reading around Percy\u2019s standing and influence within Anglican Church circles (and beyond), it is clear that he is a formidable intellectual force and an iconoclastic thinker.\u00a0 When we finally meet him in Oxford, it will be a \u201cDr. Percy, I presume?\u201d type moment. \u00a0I look forward to getting the chance to finally meet the one we have heard and read so much about.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a>Lyndon Shakespeare, \u201cThe Prudent Priest\u201d in Reasonable Radical? Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/em>, ed. Ian S. Markham and Joshua Daniel (Eugene, Pickwick, 2018), 101.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a>Martyn Percy,\u00a0Shaping the Church: The Promise of Implicit Theology<\/em>\u00a0(Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), 2-4.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a>Lyndon Shakespeare, \u201cThe Prudent Priest\u201d in Reasonable Radical? Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/em>, ed. Ian S. Markham and Joshua Daniel (Eugene, Pickwick, 2018), 103.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a>Martyn Percy, \u201cOn Not Rearranging the Deckchairs On the Titanic: A Commentary On Reform and Renewal in the Church of England,\u201d Modern Church, November 2, 2016,\u00a0https:\/\/modernchurch.org.uk\/worship\/prayer-liturgy\/cremation-rite-for-unborn-children\/send\/32-articles\/768-on-not-rearranging-the-deckchairs-on-the-titanic<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a memorable scene from the history of the 19th-century European colonial exploration of Africa.\u00a0Sir Henry Morton Stanley had been deployed from England and had trekked across East Africa searching for missionary and explorer David Livingstone. After months of searching, he finally found him, and according to the story, he famously says, \u201cDr. Livingstone, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[963],"class_list":["post-23233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-martyn-percy","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23234,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233\/revisions\/23234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}