What do you think?
Rate this book
In Every Corner Sing: The Diary of a Country Vicar
In the literary tradition of Parson Woodforde and Georges Bernanos, here is the moving, wise and funny diary of a country vicar at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, it raises profound questions about the nature of ministry and the future of the church through its gentle yet acutely observed portraits and stories. Previously self published under the title "Church Wardens I Have Buried", it is used as a text book on ministerial training course.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2006
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 28, 2020
Of the various clergy diaries that I have read, this is the only one to have been written in my lifetime and so has a particular interest to me. Written over six months covering October 1998 to April 1999 it is only a snapshot of parish ministry, but he does do a remarkable job of getting across a flavour of his life during that short period.
Of course this diary was either written with the purpose of publication or edited extensively beforehand so it is not an unvarnished account. Understandably there is nothing critical of colleagues or parishioners. The only person who does have any frustration vented upon them (apart from the anonymous compilers of the lectionary and the liturgists behind Common Worship) is his wife. Inevitably something of a one-sided account of ministry is given.
The diary may only be twenty years old, but in many ways it inhabits a world that has more in common with the eighteenth century diaries that I have read rather than my own experience. It is written just before e-mails become common, and so his experience of returning from a week's holiday is an enormous pile of post. My experience is of an inbox exceeding 200 unread emails. The internet only gets a passing reference at the very end. His daily round of parish and hospital visiting may perhaps still be the common experience of the rural vicar. I confess that I know of no urban clergy who are able to be so assiduous in pastoral ministry. I was astonished by his claim that in over thirty years of parish ministry, he had only conducted five funerals of people that he did not know. Almost every funeral that I conduct is of someone unknown to me. Timothy Biles writes one year away from retirement and so carries with him the attitudes and experiences of a man whose ministry was formed in the 1960s. In some ways this is a diary written fifty years ago and set at the turn of the millennium.
At the same time, there are significant points of congruence that made me smile. Clergy are being cut and his already vast deanery is having to reduce to eight stipendiary ministers. There is a tension between the informal family services which he feels lack depth but have sizeable congregations and the traditional liturgy which only attracts the faithful and elderly. The Church of England's obsession with providing Eucharistic ministry in every church, every Sunday disenfranchises the non-confirmed and places inordinate pressure on already overworked clergy. None of these issues have been resolved, and what was once a particular problem of rural ministry is now increasingly an urban one as well.
The back cover of the book tells me that this diary is already used as a text on ministerial training courses, although I didn't come across it at Ridley. It raises very useful debatable points, and Timothy Biles's style can be polemical at times, but as an example of long term sustainable ministry I'm not sure of the example that is set. The author rarely takes days off (he doesn't believe in them) and has little holiday. He feels guilty that the excessive visiting that he does is still not enough. He edits his parish magazine and puts the rota together. His colleague collapses through chronic fatigue syndrome. The surprise is that something similar hasn't happened to Rev. Biles.
As with most diaries, In Every Corner Sing is a fascinating read. If I ever needed to be discouraged from rural ministry (I never have) this would do the job. I suspect that Timothy Biles was a wonderful parish priest but an infuriating colleague. He seems to confuse his vocation as a priest with the work of ministry. You can have a day off as a priest. It does not mean that you cease to be a priest on that day. It means that you are a priest enjoying his or her sabbath. I would commend his sense of vocation to an ordinand, but not his working practices.
Of course this diary was either written with the purpose of publication or edited extensively beforehand so it is not an unvarnished account. Understandably there is nothing critical of colleagues or parishioners. The only person who does have any frustration vented upon them (apart from the anonymous compilers of the lectionary and the liturgists behind Common Worship) is his wife. Inevitably something of a one-sided account of ministry is given.
The diary may only be twenty years old, but in many ways it inhabits a world that has more in common with the eighteenth century diaries that I have read rather than my own experience. It is written just before e-mails become common, and so his experience of returning from a week's holiday is an enormous pile of post. My experience is of an inbox exceeding 200 unread emails. The internet only gets a passing reference at the very end. His daily round of parish and hospital visiting may perhaps still be the common experience of the rural vicar. I confess that I know of no urban clergy who are able to be so assiduous in pastoral ministry. I was astonished by his claim that in over thirty years of parish ministry, he had only conducted five funerals of people that he did not know. Almost every funeral that I conduct is of someone unknown to me. Timothy Biles writes one year away from retirement and so carries with him the attitudes and experiences of a man whose ministry was formed in the 1960s. In some ways this is a diary written fifty years ago and set at the turn of the millennium.
At the same time, there are significant points of congruence that made me smile. Clergy are being cut and his already vast deanery is having to reduce to eight stipendiary ministers. There is a tension between the informal family services which he feels lack depth but have sizeable congregations and the traditional liturgy which only attracts the faithful and elderly. The Church of England's obsession with providing Eucharistic ministry in every church, every Sunday disenfranchises the non-confirmed and places inordinate pressure on already overworked clergy. None of these issues have been resolved, and what was once a particular problem of rural ministry is now increasingly an urban one as well.
The back cover of the book tells me that this diary is already used as a text on ministerial training courses, although I didn't come across it at Ridley. It raises very useful debatable points, and Timothy Biles's style can be polemical at times, but as an example of long term sustainable ministry I'm not sure of the example that is set. The author rarely takes days off (he doesn't believe in them) and has little holiday. He feels guilty that the excessive visiting that he does is still not enough. He edits his parish magazine and puts the rota together. His colleague collapses through chronic fatigue syndrome. The surprise is that something similar hasn't happened to Rev. Biles.
As with most diaries, In Every Corner Sing is a fascinating read. If I ever needed to be discouraged from rural ministry (I never have) this would do the job. I suspect that Timothy Biles was a wonderful parish priest but an infuriating colleague. He seems to confuse his vocation as a priest with the work of ministry. You can have a day off as a priest. It does not mean that you cease to be a priest on that day. It means that you are a priest enjoying his or her sabbath. I would commend his sense of vocation to an ordinand, but not his working practices.
Displaying 1 of 1 review