New book shares the flavours of ministry experience from Orkney to Afghanistan

Stories from a varied career in ministry have been collected in a new book that sets out to reflect the realties of life in the Church of Scotland.

"Oh All Right Then" by Orkney minister Rev Dr Marjory MacLean is intended as a celebration of the privilege of ordained ministry in the Kirk, with all its challenges and those unexpected moments that make it so unexpected and memorable.

The South Ronaldsay and Burray minister draws on her own experience in parish ministry on the islands and the mainland, as well as her experiences working in the Church of Scotland's national headquarters at 121 George Street in Edinburgh and as a reservist military chaplain in Afghanistan.

She also hopes the book will raise funds for the new Orkney Islands parish, which will be formed at the beginning of October and will eventually unite the 19-parishes in the islands.

Dr MacLean's diverse experience in ministry has led to others suggesting that she should write about her career.

Dr MacLean resisted those suggestions as she has never had any interest in writing a memoir, but when she was asked to supervise a discernment candidate she realised that sharing her experiences could help guide those considering a future in ministry.

Dr MacLean's main impetus in writing the book was realising that the recommended reading list for candidates was lacking in material directly related to the Church of Scotland.

"It was absolutely no-one's fault, but it happens that nobody has written anything specifically about the Church of Scotland that would belong on that reading list," she explained.

"That made me think that perhaps the experience of ministry I have had might be a quarry from which to draw some stories that would illustrate what ministry is like, how varied it is, how satisfying it is and occasionally how crazy and amusing it might be."

Although not intended as an autobiography, it draws on Dr MacLean's own experiences to illustrate "all those different flavours of the experience of being a minister", from first feeling a vocation, through training and on to the working life of a minister of Word and Sacrament.

Kirk and camel spiders

The book includes chapters on each of the parishes where Dr MacLean has served, including her first in Stromness, her mainland parish in the Carse of Gowrie, and her current post, her role as a military chaplain and her time at the Kirk's head office, illustrated with her experiences.

"Things like a description of what it feels like to be a chaplain in a war zone in Kabul in 2010, visiting guards in watchtowers during the night and having to make sure as you walked from one to another that you avoided any camel spiders – which are actually a type of scorpion," she said.

"Or, from my ministry in Inchture, answering the phone and an unknown voice introducing himself: ‘Hullo, Dr MacLean. We haven't met, but I am your consultant archaeologist.' I didn't know I had a consultant archaeologist, but apparently my architect did, and they had found something very startling under the church that we were refurbishing.

"It's moments like that. It's not big dramas, necessarily. It's those individual moments when you think to yourself: New College did not prepare me for this exact incident!"

Writing the book also provided her with an opportunity to reflect more deeply on what ministry means and what the role involves beyond the demands of a Sunday service.

"But you don't go two or three pages before finding out something really stupid that I have done, so there should be a smile every few minutes," Dr MacLean added.

A guide for a changing ministry

Given the changes that that have taken place in the Church and society, Dr MacLean sees a need for an insider's guide such as this which might not have existed when she was a new minister three decades ago.

"When I started out as a minister, most people going into ministry had been in the Church of Scotland all their lives," Dr MacLean pointed out.

"Nowadays, a lot of people are coming into ministry late in life, they are much more immersed in other professions, they have often not been members of the Church all their lives and have often come from another tradition or possibly from another country. In terms of being a resource, I think the book is needed more now than it was by my generation. "You can't look at anyone else's ministry and assume that yours is going to look like that. We have so much more of a weekday ministry now than we used to that we are all now doing very different things. The message that ministry is what you make it and it doesn't run on rails is in some ways what I am trying to get across."

"Oh All Right Then" – its title coming from the moment when you accept that God is calling you to ministry – is Dr MacLean's second book to be published within the last 12 months, but she describes its predecessor, "Visions and Authorities", as more technical and aimed at those making big decisions about the Church.

In contrast, she hopes that "Oh All Right Then" will have an audience beyond those interested in a ministry career for themselves.

"Because it is a very general celebration of ministry, and most people in our congregations are fond of their ministers or at least curious about what they do between Sunday mornings, I am sure it will be of a pretty general interest to people," she said.

"Oh All Right Then" is available now from Amazon UK, priced £12.95 in paperback and £7.99 as an e-book.

There will be three launch events beginning with a Scottish mainland launch event on Sunday 22 September at 7pm in Mayfield Salisbury Church in Edinburgh, followed by a London launch on Sunday 29 September at Crown Court Church of Scotland, and finally a home launch in Orkney at St Margaret's Church, St Margaret's Hope on Tuesday 1 October.

Tickets are free, but should be booked in advance to assist catering planning at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/marjory-maclean