"Everyone respects yah. I always knew your life was bliss."
So says the character, Colin, as handcuffed and sitting in the rear of the police car, he and the Vicar are driven off.
I am amazed how the people from outside of any Church affiliation who have watched BBC Two's 'Vicar' see in the flawed and fallible (pathetic even at times) main character a man who they respect and who, for them, is someone to be admired.
No longer are Vicars weird and bumbling plater saints but, through this programme, they have become very human (just like them) people who struggle (just like them) who at the end of the day do what is right (just not like them).. Oddly, to wobble and yet continue and regain a straight(ish) line is something they understand and draw hope from and have respect for.
Funny isn't it?
Or as a lady who engaged me whilst I was clearing the myriad number of cans and bottles that collect in the garden so neatly summed it up. "He's a real person isn't he?"
I know many of us Christians, especially us dog collared Christians, might flinch and despair at the character. But I wonder whether there's more like him than we'd care to own up to, even in ourselves?
Here's an interesting little piece I came across recently from the Daily Mail (Thanks Rachel):
Strip bars, sessions in the pub, and a distinct dislike of bishops: The inner-city vicars who inspired BBC show Rev.
Television imitating life apparently.
1 comment:
Vic,
thanks for posting this. I don't read the mail as I regard it as a rag. But sometimes they come up with a piece of journalism which is worth reading - this is one.
I know that Vicars are human with all of the frailties, but our expectations are of something superhuman, compassionate and discreet. Someone with inbuilt holiness and grace that we can look up to and trust, and hopefully with a sense of fun to cope with our bad jokes such as 'more tea vicar'.
Only when you join a ministry team and become more closely involved in the work of the Church and see the tight rope that Vicars walk daily trying and hoping to keep all in balance do you appreciate them in any real way. Or when you suffer a trauma or tragedy and the Vicar is at your door perhaps before family members to comfort and console and to give hope do you appreciate them.
I often wonder why anyone would want to do the job? And even more troubling, wonder why I feel the call to serve. I just know that the immense privilege of being allowed to serve in my current role overcomes the doubts and concerns as we see the needs of people being met.
Vicars represent something which our society despite its secular bias needs and perhaps should learn to appreciate more.
Hopefully The Rev will at least inform people a little more of the real humanity of those who wear a Dog Collar.
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