The longest serving Bishop’s Officer for Self-Supporting Ministers has urged the Church of England to “fully recognize” the value of ministers in secular jobs and to actively promote this work.
Hugh Lee, who is stepping down after 30 years as Bishop’s officer for SSMs and Ministers in Secular Employment (MSE) in Oxford Diocese, says the church is too inward looking. “The Church is in danger of being run by stipendiary priests for stipendiary priests”.
SSMs comprise as many as a third of licensed (non-retired) clergy and Lee welcomes an initiative this year by Ministry (formerly Ministry Division) of the Church of England to engage more with SSMs and their representatives. A working group set up by Ministry is co-operating with a new network of Bishops’ officers for SSMs and MSEs.
“It is time for the Church hierarchy to fully recognize our contribution” says Lee, who served as an MSE on General Synod from 2000 to 2015. He was a founding member of CHRISM, the network of Christians in Secular Ministry, that sees its role as ‘help(ing) ourselves and others to celebrate the presence of God and the holiness of life in our work, and to see and tell the Christian story there’.
Hugh Lee at home in Oxford Source: Oxford Diocese
Lee sees his work as an energy economist as the main focus of his ministry. He held a senior post with the National Coal Board (NCB), including during the 1984-85 coal miners’ strike.
Lee believes these days SSMs are seen largely as extra help for resource-starved parishes. This was not always the case. The late 1950s saw the birth of a small movement of worker priests, known as the Worker Church Group. From the 1960s onwards, after the Southwark Ordination Course started, Non-Stipendiary Ministers, as MSEs were known, “were seen positively by many parts of the church”.
“it was not about dealing with a shortage of clergy; we were ordained to fulfill a different role, out in society”.
Still, there was little practical or theological support. The Bishop of Buckingham, who ordained Lee in 1981, was enthusiastic, but honest, Lee says. “He said ‘You are on your own, I don’t know how to help you (as an NSM)’”.
Lee says his role was in some ways a “hidden ministry, simply having a presence among colleagues, doing the work as best we could”. In some phases of his career colleagues know he was ordained – at the NCB he had ‘Rev’ on his door - and he regularly provided pastoral support.
In addition, colleagues often saw him as “someone with integrity”, sharing a sense of hope and standing up for Christian values, especially at times of difficulty, such as during the miners’ strike.
The huge year-long strike to prevent colliery closures pitted Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Miners, against the NCB, backed by prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Lee was the NCB’s deputy head of strategic planning. Many NCB staff saw their work in this nationalized industry as contributing to the UK’s economic development, so the strike came as shock, Lee says.
“Many Christians in particular came to me and said ‘I’m a Christian too, what can we do about this terrible strike?’ Well, I thought, what makes Christians different – we pray. So we started praying”.
Lee organized a room in the NCB Head Office in London and every day during the strike 10-20 people arrived 15 minutes before work and prayed together. “We prayed for the workers and their families who were suffering, for Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher, and for the police on the front line”.
Every month during the strike Lee took a day off to meet with coalfield chaplains, to build understanding between management and workers. (In the 1990s Lee worked to promote the ministry of workplace chaplains in the Oxford Diocese).
Lee acknowledges publicly for the first time his role in the late 1980s in a secret effort to remove Scargill as NUM president. Some NUM staff were unhappy with Scargill and they saw an opportunity to remove him, but they needed the NCB’s support, Lee said. “An NUM officer approached me, as they knew I was trustworthy and discreet”. Lee agreed to put the plan to the NCB chairman. “The chairman decided the NCB shouldn’t get involved so the plan went nowhere”. Scargill remained president until 2002.
Returning to today, Lee is pleased that a national network of over 40 SSM officers and advisors was established in May, with the aim of supporting SSMs and MSEs and representing their interests to the Church. After almost 40 years as an MSE he remains optimistic. “This shows there is some momentum. Christians always remain hopeful”.
www.chrism.org.uk