Pastoral Ethics

Yesterday and today I sat my two papers for the ethics exam; having completed them, I have officially done everything I need to do before I leave college! I still need to do 3 modules in order to complete the BTh, but those do not have to be done before ordination.

The exam yesterday was a mix of ethical theory and application - we had to write three essays, at least one from theory and one applied. I wrote on natural law, capital punishment and homosexuality.

Interesting as those topics were, today's was both more relevant and a lot harder! Today was the Pastoral Ethics paper, in which we were given a fictional case study (from parish life), and had to both identify the ethical issues at play, and state how we would respond to the parishioner. Without going into the details of the case study, it highlights how we can talk and talk about what the ethical response might be in an ideal world, but we willl be pastoring to real people in hurting situations, where the answer will always be more complicated than the ideal. It is helpful to have theories and ideals and theology in our 'resource boxes'...but, as has been said more than once in my time here, people in the parish won't care how much I know until they know how much I care.

Update for the last two months

So, the last time I got round to updating this, I was talking about the exams I was sitting. That seems a long time ago! The results came out recently, and I was very pleased to achieve what I hoped for - a pair of 2:1 results. (Actual scores were 66% in OT and 68% in NT).

Since the exams, there have been lots of other things happening, as you'd expect! Rest of term was a mixture of Themed Study Weeks (one on Death, Dying & Bereavement and one on Communication), as well as a number of one-off days on various other topics, including race awareness and healing/the paranormal. Alongside that, I have been working on my long essays, which I want to have done by the end of August.

Not much time for them at the moment, though, as I have been on placement for the last three weeks. I am at Dorchester Abbey, just down the road from Cuddesdon, and I asked to go there to get experience of what it is like in a team ministry. Dorchester is one parish within a benefice of many (mostly village communities), with a team of 3 stipendiary clergy, 2 curates and many other licensed ministers (some clergy, some lay). It has been a fascinating experience of seeing how a multi-parish benefice works - now I just have to write it up!

And one other thing has happened - we've moved! Although we have really enjoyed being in the cottage, it simply wasn't big enough for the imminent arrival of baby Routledge (less than 2 months to go!) So we are now in one of the 2-bedroom flats on-site - which feels very spacious after the cosiness of the cottage!

OT Exam today

I had the first of my two exams this morning: 3 hours on the Old Testament.

Went reasonably well, I think, but am so glad I did the mock last week! It helped me to get my timings right, so I was able to pace myself pretty much perfectly, with 5 minutes at the end to go back and finish an earlier question!

There were 4 'gobbets' in the exam (short passages of scripture which have to be commented on - with regards to history, literary and theological insights). I did the two from Genesis and two from Second Isaiah.

The two essays were interesting - not quite as expected, but fairly easy to adapt the mock essays to. One was on whether or not it is adequate to describe Genesis 1-11 as "monotheistic myth", in its Ancient Near East context - an opportunity to talk about things like the Creation and Flood narratives in comparison with those in (for example) the Mesopotamian narratives of Atrahasis & Gilgamesh.
The other essay was about the 'servant' figure in Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55), and whether or not the fact that he is 'anonymous' is significant.

As I say, it went fairly well on the whole - I'm sure I've passed, at any rate, which is all I need to do.

Time now to replace the OT theology with NT, ready for exam 2 tomorrow morning!

Exam time!

So the new term has started, we're 3 days into it, and the holiday revision is starting to bear fruit!

I have two exams next week - one in Old Testament, and one in New Testament, and to help us prepare for it, college has put on two optional mocks this week. I've taken them both, mainly to make sure I get my timings right. I spent a bit too much time on the first half of the OT mock, but managed to correct it on the NT paper, and even got all the Greek translation done!

So there are a few more days to go over anything which needs consolidating...this time next week, exams are over, and the long essays can begin!