I still have many questions and I don't have all the answers.


Great. This is just what they are looking for. It would be a worry if someone fronted up as a candidate for the priesthood and said, "I've got all theanswers." 

A priest, as with other pastoral workers, is someone who comes into situations with an openness to encounter others and respect their life experience and faith journey. If I were to go into a situation thinking I had all the answers and that it was my job to give them to people, then I would not only be unable to relate to people, but I would miss the gems of wisdom that their lifeexpereince has to offer others too.

We are all still on the journey. This is not to say that we want priestswho don't have faith. But one definition of  the study of theology is"faith seeking understianding."  We believe in God and we believe thatthe Gospel of Jesus has a lot to offer the world, and yet we constantly seekto deepen our faith and our undertanding and we sometimes grapple with bigquestions and try to see how they fit in with our belief.

The Seminary programme gives students a lot of scope and room to really work hard with the tough questions of  faith, and the only bad result would beif one stopped short and settled for half-baked answers or gave up thesearchfor the hard answers to faith and life issues.

One thing that causes me a great deal of frustration when I speak to some people is that they have not followed their questions and doubts deep enough. For example, you might regularly hear someone saying, "I don't believe in Hell because God is love."  I feel like saying, " is that as far asyou went with that?  What are your definitions, what is the historyand theology behind the concept of hell, how do you fit in the concept ofhuman freedom and the justice of God as well....etc...etc... etc..". It isnot the factthat someone has a different opinion or belief to mine thatmakes me angry,its that they have settled with a half-baked and half-thoughtout belief based on not-very-much-work.

Another example is people who speak of how "it would be great if we could have the Christian faith without the institutional elements that we havenow.'" Again I feel like saying......  "the bible itself is an "institution" and flowed out of the faith life of a community. We would not have our faith today if it were not transmitted through the institution of the faith community, so what do you mean by "avoiding the institution," is this just idealism??"

The issue is not, whether I have doubts or questions or whether I am still searching, but the real question is, "am I prepared to work away at getting into the questions I have, do I trust that my faith will deepen if I risk this inquiry, and am I prepared to never settle for half-baked throw-away lines when I strike a difficult or challenging issue in my faith or my life, but I will keep searching and inquiring and talking and arguing until I can make an informed response.

the search continues, thank God.