The Times - UK (2022-05-02)

the times | Monday May 2 2022 19

News

Retirement is the start of a fresh chap-
ter for many, offering a new lease of life
to travel the world, pursue hobbies,
hang out with the grandchildren or, for
a growing band, join the priesthood.
Former city workers, head teachers
and police officers are being fast-
tracked into the clergy to bring a “life-
time of work experience” to rural
churches and to help over-stretched
vicars.
It is hoped that up to 8,000 Church of
England worshippers in their late
fifties, sixties or seventies, particularly
those with managerial experience and
a record of serving as church wardens
or lay ministers, could be tempted to
train as priests to serve in their local
parish after retirement.
People are not usually put forward
for ordination after the age of 55 and
rarely after 65. The retirement age for
clergy is 70 while selection and training
can take up to five years. However, a
pilot scheme working with St Mellitus
College in South Kensington, west
London, and the blessing of bishops,
has reduced this to a single year.
One priest, a former partner at a
strategy and consulting company, has
been ordained at the age of 67. Ten
others, including a former headmis-
tress, a retired police constable and a
dressmaker — all in their mid to late
sixties — are in training. It is hoped 100
will sign up for the next academic year.
Thousands of churches no longer
have their own vicar. Some priests care
for 20 or more parishes, reliant on
teams of assistant priests, retired clergy
and lay parishioners to hold services
across large areas.
Some leaders say restoring a one-
priest-per-church system would boost
congregations by forming closer bonds
between communities and vicars.
The new Caleb scheme, an acronym
for Creating Anointed Leaders to Em-
power the Body, and named after Caleb,
the Biblical figure who was still proving
his worth at 85, aims to find new priests
for parishes within their congregations.
These priests will be self-supporting
and not receive a stipend. They will not
need a vicarage because they live local-

ly. The Rev Nicky Gumbel, 67, who is

stepping down after 17 years as vicar of

Holy Trinity, Brompton in southwest

London, is championing the Caleb

stream. Holy Trinity has more than

4,000 worshippers across its six sites.

Gumbel turned Alpha, the evangelis-

tic course, into a global phenomenon.

Speaking to The Times before the

Global Alpha Leadership Conference

this week, Gumbel said about half a mil-

lion Anglicans were aged between 55

and 72. With life expectancy now in the

eighties, many want to pursue a new

passion in retirement.

“They’ve been involved in church all

their life,” he said. “How hard would it

be to find 8,000 who would give 25

years after they’ve left life in the city?”

The Rev Anthony Goddard, 67, is the

first Caleb graduate. He was ordained

last June after a business career with

leading companies. “The vision is to put

thousands of ‘Calebs’ like me into these

multi-parish benefices to share the

load,” he said.

Andy Green spent 30 years as a

police constable while his wife, Caro-

line, became a GP practice manager.

They will be 69 and 65 when they are

ordained at Worcester Cathedral.

They will return to St Egwin’s near

Evesham in Worcestershire. Andy said:

“It will be the first time in about 50 years

that St Egwin’s will have had its own

ordained minister.”

Retirees on a fast-track to priesthood

answer the prayers of rural parishes

Kaya Burgess
Religious Affairs Correspondent

Constable’s

fingerprint

caught on

the breeze

David Sanderson Arts Correspondent

A fingerprint has been found from the

dawn of open-air painting in Britain —

left when John Constable was trying to

stop his paper from blowing in the wind.

Research on Constable’s Sky Study

with a Shaft of Sunlight by the

Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge

unearthed the fingerprint thought to

have been left when he was attaching

paper to his easel. The 1822 oil painting

was created about a decade into

Constable’s ground-breaking en plein

air practice.

It was only in the early 19th century

that painting outdoors became widely

practised and Constable was a pioneer

for the impressionists. The availability

of tubes of paint, rather than the cum-

bersome mixing of paints with the

grinding of raw pigments, was a crucial

factor in the development.

Where Constable led, JMW Turner

and the late 19th-century artists of the

Newlyn School, also followed.

Constable’s fingerprint is to go on dis-

play at the Fitzwilliam Museum from

tomorrow as part of its new exhibition

True to Nature, which explores the evo-

lution of open-air painting.

More than 120 open-air paintings

including loans from the National Gal-

lery of Art in Washington DC and the

Fondation Custodia in Paris are to be

displayed.

Jane Munro, one of the curators, said

the “thrill” of outdoor painting was one

of the few “constant” activities during

the pandemic. “Nature on our doorstep

became a reassurance, a salve,” she said.

“Visitors will see through their eyes,

feel their wonder as they record storm-

torn skies, limpid rockpools, the dap-

pled shade of a tree canopy or the awe-

inspiring sight of an erupting volcano.”

The exhibition will focus on natural

phenomena depicted by artists, includ-

ing volcanoes, trees, water and skies.

Constable, who died in 1837, referred

to his time spent painting skies as “sky-

ing” and believed the sky to be the

“chief organ of sentiment”.

David Hockney’s video installation

of Woldgate Woods in his native York-

shire will also be shown.

Anthony Goddard

was ordained last

June, becoming

the first Caleb

graduate. Andy

and Caroline

Green are to

return to their

local church,

St Egwin’s, after

they are ordained

at Worcester

Cathedral in July

JORDAN PETTITT/SOLENT NEWS FOR THE TIMES; SWNS