L.A.W: Life after Whitley

Today it is three years since I concluded my time as Principal of Whitley College and I take this opportunity to reflect on some of what it has meant.

Three years on, I am still coming to terms with the reality that I am the past. 

I have been very careful to ensure that I do not in any way interfere with the new leadership of the College, while maintaining support and encouragement from a distance. 

To be ‘the past’ can have a sense of being passé. It may feel like that too, when developments take place beyond anything I had known about or was part of the initial planning. In other respects, one may be identified as the past from which things are now moving on, perhaps with an undertone of ‘at last that is gone’. That is probably always the case, sometimes made obvious and at other times the long silence, simply being ignored, gives the message. 

But there is another very positive sense of being the past. It is always vital when assuming the leadership of an institution to realise that you stand on the shoulders of those who went before. They provided perhaps the resources, facilities, policies or programs, the reputation and significance which is now ours to nurture and carry forward, and to change in creative and responsible ways. The past is the foundation of where we are and what we may become. So to be the past is to be a part of what is now given to those who participate in the life of the College, even though one does not know them and they do not know me. 

To allow this to be so, it is necessary to affirm what is past and as far as possible to enjoy it. I am so glad of the opportunity to teach theology for all those years. So many times I was delighted when some person, young or older, would discover a deeper level of meaning or even challenge in their faith. So often people who had struggled with what seemed to them an incoherent or perhaps binding way of thinking about God or human experience found liberation and a new sense of life, meaning, value and purpose through theology. Far from the dry and turgid sense that so much bad and unimaginative teaching, or simply bad theology, has delivered to people, this is the delight of encounter with a living God and a living faith. What a privilege to have been ‘midwife’ to such re-birth of faith and life. And, thankfully, this is not only the past for me, as I continue to have an opportunity to do some teaching, at another college. 

I am also deeply grateful for the ongoing contribution of many of my former students, both here and in other parts of the world. Those whose doctorates I helped to bring into the world are making contributions in many areas. This ‘past’ is continuing to live and give. So too many of those whose pathway into ordained ministry I have helped to make possible, guide and encourage are also a source of gratitude to me. Not everyone thanked me for the study, discipline and challenge they experienced (and needed). Not everyone has continued in the pathway they had set or hoped to follow. Still, there are people doing immensely creative things, and others doing the job of caring for people, week in and week out, in unspectacular ways but nonetheless authentically, and I am pleased to have been part of all of that. 

Three years on, I am also delighted to affirm L.A.W.—Life After Whitley. In the present, I am almost as busy as ever, but much of the time doing a range of things I choose to do far more than those inherent in a single ‘job’. In fact I think this is how the working world will be for many people into the future. I am very much enjoying the role of Chair of the Academic Board in the University of Divinity. It draws upon my experience and skills in academic leadership and governance, while adding a rich ecumenical experience that was not so much part of my previous life. 

But Life After Whitley is much more than work. We have built a new home and are immensely enjoying that. It is a passive solar house which has some many wonderful design features and is ecologically almost self-sustaining.  I am able to work from the house more and thus also be much more involved with the day to daytasks and activities of the home. We have been able to be more involved with our church than when I was expected to be visiting other churches or preaching in many other places—though the occasional opportunity to do that would still be welcome! 

Travel to other parts of the world is very much part of life after Whitley, not for meetings or conferences. Again, however, since 2017 I have been co-leading an international ecumenical dialogue program between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church; this is both exciting and challenging, and has involved more travel. 

Two specific activities give me a lot of pleasure. One is the opportunity to provide some professional supervision to a number of colleagues in ministry, as a reflection partner and support. Sometimes this is a formalised activity and with others it is less formal but nonetheless as rich personally. 

Another is the opportunity to get at least some writing done. I am enjoying some research and some writing and am pleased with the ‘output’ even though it’s not always yet reached the final form.

That brings briefly to speak of the future. Here the most wonderful aspect is the arrival three months ago of our first grandchild. He is the promise of the future. Life goes on and we are part of its continuing cycles. We hope to live to see him grow and mature. 

So too I am keen to participate in making the world a better place for him to live into:—and here I have to say how distressing and depressing the prospect of our current situation appears. If the future of the world is defined by politics as it is now, in the US, Russia, China, Britain and our own government, it is in very deep trouble. Our generation was urged to ‘maintain your rage’, when a democratically elected government was thrown out by the representative of the British crown. Today I do not even see signs of rage. Instead, people are withdrawing faith in democracy, government itself. That leaves it to the forces of self-interest to have it all their way without effective opposition. Surely a movement (and a leader?) must emerge to offer a creative, community-caring and earth-protecting way forward. Or is it too late?

Are we on the edge of the coming of the barbarians? 

We have to find ways to ensure it is not so!