Product Description

Vatican II has given rise to some interesting theology of ministry and priesthood. In this book a diocesan priest shares, emotionally and pastorally, some of the challenges which church teaching and disclipline put before worshippers. How far may a priest go in a dialogue with people?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #778059 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"An inspiration... With genuine humility and honesty Owen displays a deep love of the priesthood and a courageous concern for the rights of the laity... I found myself cheering his courage and conviction as he sought to live out a more authentic priestly ministry."

Adrian Hastings, Emeritus Professor of Theology, University of Leeds
'This is the sort of honesty which the Catholic priesthood desperately needs if it is to survive as something worthwhile and appealing in the twenty-first century - an honestly which bureaucrats too often seek to suppress.'

Mildred Neville, former General Secretary of CIIR
'The author's rejection of military service marked him for life, and he has remained a conscientious objector not only in his commitment to non-violence but also in his refusal to go along with beliefs and practices, in the church and outside it, which he felt to be untruthful or inhumane.'

Customer Reviews

Living Beyond Conformity
Don't let the fact Owen Hardwicke is a Catholic priest and that this book is subtitled 'An Experience of Ministry and Priesthood' put you off; Owen writes so well and with such humour, passion and clarity that you'll find yourself almost partisan as you follow his concerns and issues.

'Living Beyond Conformity' takes us from Owen's early experiences as he quite literally looked for a church to join, through his time in the Friend's Ambulance Unit during the second world war, his first period as a priest and then care worker and on to his contributions to the peace movement in the eighties. But it's no autobiography. His experiences are recounted only as far as they are relevant to the question of what it means to be a priest in a modern ecumenical church.

It's Owen's answer to that question that makes this such a fascinating book; there's no great theory or theology here, Owen answered and is answering that question through his practice. His work with young people of any religion or none, his approach to and vision for Christian worship, his clerical style, his concern for ordinary people and the real practicalities of their lives as opposed to the dictates of church legislation, all these things mark him off of a man of real principle and character - and one able to follow through on the basis of his conscience and convictions.

While talking about the need for nonviolence Owen quotes Meister Eckhart, but could well have been describing what he has done himself his whole life; "Follow your principles and keep straight on; you will come to the right place; that is the way".

And there's his humour, always there. On home: "'If you did not live in Wales,' I was asked, 'where would you like to live?' 'In Wales,' I answered". On Mass: "Jesus said "Take and eat" not "Kneel down and be fed"". There's the great story of him arriving late to see Tommy Cooper; Cooper spots him as he tip-toes down the aisle and says "Sorry, sir, I had to start because it was time to get going".

But the central message is serious enough. Doing himself out of a job as it were, Owen writes "I personally am quite excited by the unconfined way in which Catholics increasingly are celebrating their faith; less and less are people inclined to be confined by the discipline of clergy." The church is changing, dying even, but Owen welcomes many of those changes - as one form of church dies "the seeds of new life have already been planted, and are already pushing up through the soil". Owen's vision of a grassroots church is one that a non-Catholic, even a current non-churchgoer, can cheer on.