Welcome, and thanks for stopping by...

This site is mainly about - and for - Church of England (Anglican) priests who live or work within the tarmac'd confines of the M25*, and who view their paid work in the so-called secular world as the ministry they are called to. It came about as a way of seeking to -

• bring together material and news that may be helpful to this minority group (material and news being thin on the ground)
  

• gather information on (and maybe even map) who and where this merry band of exploring men and women are to be found

• to help spread understanding of this particular expression of Christian ordained ministry, not least within the church itself

(Please note There has been such interest from beyond the M25 that we are now pretty flexible about geographical boundaries, after all, isn't the world our parish?; if you are beyond the M25 and interested, please sign up. The more the merrier.)

So, welcome! And if you have any constructive comments or questions, do please get in touch (see contact link in footer). Hugh Valentine

I regard the contemporary development of a priesthood which combines a ministry of word and sacrament with employment in a secular profession not as a modern fad but as a recovery of something indubitably apostolic and primitive. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles visited churches which they had founded and appointed and ordained "presbyters" within them. These "presbyters" were the local clergy, the teachers and pastoral and liturgical leaders, the beginning of what later centuries were to know as the second order in the threefold ministry - the order into which I ordain men today. But it is inconceivable that they were 'paid professionals' in their office, as the resources for this would have been most unlikely to be there. This is not to say that the change to a professional priesthood was wrong, and a number of aspects of the Church's nature and mission called for it. But it is to say that what we call our 'auxiliaries' (self-supporting clergy) today belong most truly to the apostolic foundation, and we may learn from them of that inward meaning of priesthood which we share with them.

Michael Ramsey, later Archbishop of Canterbury
(in the first edition of 'The Christian Priest Today', 1972)

See here for books on the theme
See here for CMD material for MSEs
See here for MSE refs on diocesan sites
See here for events for MSE-WPs
See here for model working agreements
See here for sermons/addresses
See here for something on MSEs and vocation, calling and discernment
See here for some individual biographies

 

It is often said there is a shortage of information about clergy who identify themselves as MSEs or worker-priests (see below for myriad names) and who live or work within the M25.

If you identify yourself as belonging to this merry group of ministerial adventurers please consider sending your details via this link. The aim is allow some networking and mutual support.

(Visiting from a state of motorway innocence and wondering what the heck the M25 is? See here. If you are an MSE elsewhere and want to keep in touch, do please feel free to sign-up: you are very welcome)

I'm afraid they want you to go non-stipendiary.... See more on selection

Christ the Worker. Painting hanging above the altar in the chapel at Wychcroft. Viewed over the years by many ordinands on the (erstwhile) Southwark Ordination Course as they prepared to be priest-workers

Names, only names
This unusual variant on the clerical species is variously known as -

non-stipendiary minister (NSM)
minister in secular employment (MSE)
priest in secular employment (PSE)
worker priest (WP)
bi-vocational priest
tentmaker (cf St Paul)
self supporting minister

Here we'll use mainly MSE or WP.