On Mature Reflection

[poliphilo]

I dreamed I'd co-authored a book about how I came to leave the Church. I was leafing through the finished article and finding it very glum. My co-author was the Rev Dr John Armson- who was chaplain at my theological college. According to the dream he'd counselled me through the process; in reality (this reality) he had nothing to do with it- though he's someone with whom I've always felt I had some sort of link...

Dissatisfied with the book, I felt I wanted to add a postscript in the form of a Q & A.

Q: How did you feel about leaving the Church?

A: Like Billy the Kid.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Out of interest how did you come to leave the church if you don't mind my asking?

I left the C of E in my late teens as you know and joined Friends, but then I was never a minister (at least until I joined Friends).

My old friend Alice went the opposite way- left a career when female priests became a thing in the C of E and trained for the priesthood.

[poliphilo]

A combination of factors: loss of faith, disillusionment with the institution (that one set in early) marriage breakdown, affair.

It was the affair that really bothered the bishops. They could have handled anything else. Unbelieving priest? No problem.