It's unusual for me to read theological books for fun (?) or interest, but I had a look at a new book in the library called "Clergy: The Origin of Species" by Martin Percy. Here's some of his final paragraph, which I found interesting:
Marginality is, it seems, part of the character and construct of being a minister. Clergy, to function as effective ministers, often discover their roles and tasks to be about becoming central in the more marginal and ambiguous moments of life. Clergy occupy that strange hinterland between the secular and the sacred, the temporal and the eternal, acting as interpreters and mediators, embodying and signifying faith, hope and love. They are both distant and immediate, remote yet intimate. And in occupying this most marginal and transitory ground, and sometimes helping to close the gaps between these worlds, they become humanly and spiritually necessary even as they live out their (partly willed, partly imposed) social marginality. It is a unique yet evolving paradigm. It is nothing less than to follow the call of Jesus: to belong both to the wilderness, but also to the city. To be a citizen of some place; but also of heaven. To be of the people; but also for their sake, to be wholly other.
Any thoughts?
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