Steel Angels: The Personal Qualities Of A Priest

by Magdalen Smith

The nine criteria the Church of England uses to discern potential vocations to the priesthood are explored, and linked with personal qualities that are necessary for new, but also existing, leaders in a church and culture which has changed much over the last 50 years.

Genres: Christian

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2014

About the author

Magdalen Smith is an Anglican priest working in a creative and diverse parish in Birmingham. She is a valued source of spiritual insight on vocation and ministry. She has been a Director of Ordinands and is a spiritual director, pastoral supervisor, speaker and a regular leader of retreats. Magdalen has the distinctive voice of a woman in public ministry who is simultaneously an artist, parent, daughter, spouse and friend.

Reviews

[James Bremner · Rating 1 out of 5]

At the outset I admit that I only made it through the introduction and then the first twenty pages of this book.There I did find some good comments, for example the idea that real hospitality requires, at times, a lot of sacrifice. These points were not particularly well-developed though and are, profound as they may be, readily developed elsewhere.
The reason for a one-star rating is the context that these ideas were couched in: that of a banal, weak and irrelevant Christianity. There were numerous comments which seemed to celebrate and affirm a vague sense of spirituality that some might have in old church buildings. Of course this is not necessarily a bad thing, but to affirm it and value it as it is seems to me antithetical to Christ's calls to follow Him in the gospels and also to the well-defined, vigorous life of the Church we see presented in the Epistles and Acts. I would not at all recommend this book.
Clowney's 'Called to the Ministry' and Baxter's 'The Reformed Pastor' will be found much more uplifting and useful.