大象传媒

From Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze, Anglican Priest and Prison Chaplain:

I鈥檝e been a priest for nearly 15 years now, and over the course of that time I鈥檝e talked and cried, laughed and wondered with people of all ages, in every kind of situation, good and bad. Much of the past decade has been spent as a prison chaplain - not a glamorous posting, that鈥檚 for sure, but one which has been fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.

People ask me if I enjoy working in jail, and I usually reply with some jokey remark about a 鈥榗aptive audience.鈥� But that question is a difficult one - how can I enjoy working in often quite grim conditions, with difficult, sometimes dangerous, people, all finished off with a liberal dose of 鈥榦h no here comes the God Squad鈥� when I round the corner.

Well the truth is, I don鈥檛 always enjoy it. I don鈥檛 always think I鈥檓 making a difference, I鈥檇 be rather na茂ve if I thought that vast swathes of my 鈥榝lock鈥� were instantly going to sort themselves out and become churchgoing pillars of society. I do it because I truly believe that change is possible. But on my less positive days, I鈥檓 not so different from plenty of other priests and ministers up and down the country, from the quiet rural parish to the big city church. And no different to leaders, and followers, of many other faiths too.

We slog it out, just like anyone else. We love, we laugh, we cry. We make mistakes, we fail, we doubt. Yes, even doubt our faith now and then, in the face of things we struggle to understand. It鈥檚 worth remembering that not every person who holds a spiritual belief is a religious bulldozer, without intelligence or integrity. In these difficult days, let鈥檚 guard against our own caricatures.

I think it鈥檚 a lot healthier to hold any belief, religious or not, alongside a聽willingness to ask, and be asked, plenty of questions. It鈥檚 what stops us being, as the saying goes, 鈥榯oo heavenly minded to be of any earthly use.鈥� Instead, I love how the American writer Frederick Buechner puts it like this: 鈥淒oubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.鈥�