The Masters plan

So.

Whisper it - there might be an actual plan in the offing...

You'll know from my last post that last Monday I was up in Liverpool for an MA (a MA? Who knows.) interview. I'd stumbled across the St Mellitus MA in Christian Leadership as I'd made a last-ditch attempt to rescue my study plans after the disappointment of discovering my first-choice programme wasn't running in September, and in the course of less than a fortnight I'd sent off a brief email to find out more about the course, decided to apply, was offered the opportunity to go up for a taster day and been for an interview!

There are times when things just fall into place...

St Mellitus has quickly become one of the key Anglican training colleges in the UK and last September an affiliated college opened in Liverpool, based at the Anglican cathedral. I'd had hoped that I'd be able to do the MA in London but the course was full, hence the application to Liverpool since Leicester is, as the proverbial crow flies, pretty much equidistant between there and London (although slightly more difficult to get to by public transport - more on that later!).

But as I've reflected on my taster and interview, I've begun to see the very real advantages of a northern adventure. The college is smaller - I don't think there were more than about twenty-five people in the room (and the college does seem to basically be a single room) at any one time - and in the process of getting established which offers genuine potential to be part of shaping something new and interesting. There also seemed to be a real sense of community (to the extent that it's possible to get a feel for that kind of thing in a single morning) which is something I particularly value.

Oddly, perhaps, one of the highlights of my morning was the interview itself. Well, I say 'interview' - it was actually a nice chat over coffee. We started off by chatting about all the normal stuff - what I'm doing at the moment, my faith journey, etc - and then we got onto the subject of leadership (appropriately).

I'm not sure what prompted it but I found myself talking about the Newsnight segment about leadership that I watched back in January and have blogged about a couple of times. I talked about the absence of women from the programme and the subconscious messages about leadership this had communicated, about the lack of reference to the wider context of female monarchs (the programme was about Shakespeare who, as you know, wrote during the reign of Elizabeth I and was broadcast as part of the Jubilee celebrations for Elizabeth II), and about the complete lack of furore about this that had greeted it when it was broadcast. As I was talking I was aware that this felt like a deal-breaker, that if Jill didn't 'get' what I was talking about I wasn't sure this was the place for me.

But she did get it. We talked about her own historical leadership heroes, Joan of Arc and Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and founder of Christ's College, Cambridge. She understood my sense of outrage at the Newsnight programme (and at the lack of outrage about it). She was unnecessarily encouraging about my potential to write interesting things about women's leadership.

I came away from that conversation feeling fairly positive...

And so there we have it. I hadn't set out to do an MA in leadership, Christian or otherwise, and yet I'm pretty convinced it's the right step. I don't know how it fits into the Baptist ordination exploration; there are some clear points of connection - part of the process of training for ordination is obviously about training for leadership, and some points of very clear disconnect - I'll be studying at an Anglican college. I'm not thinking too hard about those things just at the moment. One of the distinctives about this course is that it's about reflecting on what it means to lead as a Christian regardless of the specific context and that's one of the key appeals for me.

There are practical things that still need working out. I move out of my current accommodation on 12 July and I don't currently have anywhere to live after that - I'm planning to stay living in Leicester for work, which is another of the practical issues that needs thinking through. I also need somewhere in Liverpool to stay every Sunday night during term time. So if you're of a praying disposition...

And, yes, I know that adding a well-placed apostrophe to the title of this post would add a whole extra layer of significance to what I've written. After four and a half years of drifting about, heading somewhere but not knowing where, there seems to be a little light at the end of the tunnel. I still don't really know what the future holds, but I know is that this is the next step - the one after that will unfold itself in due course. Thanks for sticking with me!

Loving Lent

When I came up with my little plan to think about Shakespeare and leadership and Jesus and me over Lent I was largely thinking of it in terms of being a Good Thing To Do. It would help me to be a bit productive and to be disciplined about how I spend my time and it would help me think about Useful Things.

But the truth is that I'm LOVING it.

Yes, this is a good thing to do, and it is helping me to be productive and disciplined and I am thinking about useful things but I've been taken completely by surprise at how much it's all energising me.

It's stimulating me intellectually in a way that I've really missed over the last few years; it's getting the creative juices flowing; it's shaping my personal reflection in unforeseen ways. Completely unexpectedly, it's resulting in less telly and more walks.

Slightly more predictably, it's prompting more questions than answers, it's opening up new leads rather than tying up loose ends, and it's increasing the length of the reading list rather than reducing it.

It's creating a greater sense of dissatisfaction with the social and political status quo as I experience it (either personally or through what I see on the news or in my Facebook news feed), and it's making me think about my role and responsibilities not just in my work and social spheres but more widely.

And there's still five weeks to go 'til Easter!

Shakespeare, Jesus and me

I realise the title makes this sound like some kind of mid-eighties Christian devotional for children but I think it genuinely sums up my 2014 Lent plan!

In my last blog post I wrote about how my recent encounter with a Newsnight feature on leadership had prompted me to consider undertaking a Lent project around Shakespeare, gender and leadership. As I've explored over the last few days what that might look like, a few thoughts have begun to crystallise.

Probably the most significant is the fact that I realised that a Lent project probably really ought to have a bit more spiritual content! I mentioned that I was considering some kind of theological reflection on Shakespeare's Henry V but I've made a bit of a leap which could turn out to be totally inspired or utterly ridiculous (or, mostly likely, hover in some theological no-man's land between the two). It occurred to me that perhaps there are some interesting parallels between Jesus at the last supper and Henry V immediately before the battle of Agincourt - they're a similar age, they know that what's about to unfold will have a transformational impact on their leadership, and they're leading others into that experience with them. And, of course, they both give great speeches.

And so my plan essentially goes something like this. I'll be reading and listening to John's account of Jesus' time with his disciples sharing the Passover meal - I'm using Tom Wright's John for Everyone Pt2 and The Bible Experience (which, I'll be honest, is a little too over-produced and American to listen to for actual pleasure, but I plan to have it on in the car on the way to work each day).

I'll also be reading Henry IV Pts1&2 and Henry V (using my parents' copy of The Complete Oxford Shakespeare which I'm not sure has ever been read by anyone in our family before).

To aid the leadership reflection I have James Lawrence's Growing Leaders which - sorry, James! - has sat on my bookcase unread for several years. The book outlines the understanding of leadership, specifically Christian leadership, which is at the heart of the Arrow Leadership Programme so hopefully it will provide me with a familiar but challenging framework for reflecting both on leadership generally and my leadership in particular.

And last, but by no means least, there's The Hollow Crown, the BBC's Cultural Olympiad adaptation of Henry IV Pts1&2 and Henry V, for the days when reading Shakespeare gets a bit much...

But why now and why this?

Because over the last few years I've found Lent a good time to intentionally do something in my life differently. I'll be honest, the idea of giving up chocolate or Facebook feels a bit like jumping on the band wagon (although those things can be a really good thing!), and last year I found that taking things up for Lent was a really helpful way of just thinking differently about how I spend my time.

But I've also realised that with life a little more settled, and no pressing need to look for somewhere to live or for a job, I need something to focus my free time on. And even in the last few weeks I've begun to miss the creative arts bit of my life that was so important for such a long time. Entirely unexpectedly I seem to have stumbled over something that will allow me to reflect on things that on one level seem only very loosely related - Jesus, Shakespeare, leadership - and yet they have something to say about the values at the heart of our national life.

But ultimately, my plan (my prayer?) for the next six weeks is that I'll get just a bit closer to Jesus.