Andrew Bowden – författare

Some years ago, 'Faith in the Countryside', the report of the Archbishop's Commission on Rural Areas (Acora) was launched at Lambeth Palace. It was widely accepted as a good document, and a worthy companion to 'Faith in the City'. But while it seemed to put the rural Church on the agenda, it failed to come up with acceptable ministerial solutions. Andrew Bowden's book offers a model for future rural ministry which is practical, positive and a much needed follow-up to the Commission's report. He recognises that although rural dioceses have taken new initiatives, rural clergy and congregations need an overall vision and a practical strategy. This excellent handbook is as significant as the report itself for the future of rural ministry. It is now reissued with an expanded text to take recent developments fully into account.

This title provides an authoritative and timely review of the OLM experiment - its achievements, its weaknesses, and its ongoing relevance for the Church today. Ordained Anglican ministry is changing rapidly. Soon the majority of clergy are likely to be volunteers and, especially in rural areas, female. All mainstream Churches recognise that new contexts need new forms of ministry. Ordained Local Ministers (OLMs) are priests specifically called out by their local congregation and ordained to minister in that locality. Half the dioceses in England and elsewhere in the Anglican Communion including Australasia, Scotland and North America have established formal schemes to enable this type of ministry. Some dioceses believe the process has helped to revitalise parishes and raise the spiritual temperature of congregations. Others have called a halt, believing their schemes have somehow gone wrong or have not 'delivered'. The time has come for a calm assessment of available evidence about an experiment into which the Church has poured considerable time, effort and money over the last twenty years.Does it have ongoing value, or is it just one more bright idea that has flourished for a season and has now had its day?