tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post1191593301669247065..comments2024-03-17T09:17:01.454+00:00Comments on Vic the Vicar!: Dear Lord GreenVic Van Den Berghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09581156515370131898noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-15175108841805307292014-12-27T10:35:32.160+00:002014-12-27T10:35:32.160+00:00Having just come across this as a link elsewhere I...Having just come across this as a link elsewhere I have to say that you appear to have engaged in a quite balanced and informed assessment of the Green Report and have in your various considerations preceding this letter helped me understand what is on offer.<br /><br />Happy new yearAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-44542430157589159982014-12-23T16:50:14.077+00:002014-12-23T16:50:14.077+00:00I agree with your modifications.
A look back at ...I agree with your modifications. <br /><br />A look back at the successes and failures of Christian organizations might be helpful. Every long lasting monastic model raises people from the bottom up to become abbots. They don't always promote the best or brightest and it doesn't always work out, but there are models such as these that attempt to emuluate the idea of servant leadership that Christ tried to teach us. Undergroundpewsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10182191422663119484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-84337513714735958992014-12-22T06:20:17.028+00:002014-12-22T06:20:17.028+00:00Thank you all for your comments.
VThank you all for your comments.<br /><br />VVic Van Den Berghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09581156515370131898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-38070271197956214242014-12-22T06:16:01.970+00:002014-12-22T06:16:01.970+00:00I don't see this as being anything other than ...I don't see this as being anything other than an exercise in opposing that which is already in place. Nothing has changed in the way that those who become senior clergy are selected, those who are approved of feted by the bishops. You are merely kicking against the goads.<br /><br />Previous post reposted with a couple of changes to avoid offence.<br />Vic<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-85409719805716125892014-12-21T17:34:56.018+00:002014-12-21T17:34:56.018+00:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-50931969220198462602014-12-21T17:13:57.899+00:002014-12-21T17:13:57.899+00:00An excellent assessmentAn excellent assessmentAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-26347372104788147912014-12-20T08:06:24.578+00:002014-12-20T08:06:24.578+00:00Don't think you being mad was ever in doubt.
...Don't think you being mad was ever in doubt.<br /><br />But you are passionate and balanced and more than just a little wacky and <br /><br />What I which so many of my colleagues were besides.<br /><br />Have a great Christmas <br /><br />Steve TAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-40248321540153999502014-12-19T22:51:12.024+00:002014-12-19T22:51:12.024+00:00Very succinctly put - so I am sorry to respond wit...Very succinctly put - so I am sorry to respond with some disjointed ramblings as I attempt to compare and contrast what you have passed on of this report to my experiences in my bit of the NHS - General Practice.<br /><br />I have been around for long enough to have seen the conception, the birth, the initial growth, and then the killing off of the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and their replacement with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs - the NHS loves its acronyms). I have been around long enough to remember many of the benefits promised from CCGs were also promised from PCTs.<br /><br />One of the new claims made is that, while the PCTs were Management led, the CCGs are Clinician led. What this appears to mean in practice is that the clinicians on the CCG board become indistinguishable from the managers they work with. They learn the same managementspeak, such that I am tempted to draw up some B.S. Bingo cards to distribute at the next business meeting I am required to attend. It s true that doctors often use complicated terminology, but the intention is generally to convey detailed information concisely. Managementspeak seems designed to obfuscate, and our leadership have rapidly become skilled at it.<br /><br />Like the CofE report, the stated intentions of CCGs sound laudible - much is made of "the patient experience" and similar positive things. But the detail is all about what I call the three Ps - pathways, protocols and procedures, and the reality is that the patient has to be fitted into these, rather than the protocols fitting the patient needs.<br />Appraisal, and particularly 360-degree appraisal, is another current big thing in the NHS. The trouble is that such 360degree feedback so often says far more about the provider of the feedback that about the subject. In my workplace, we had quite a disagreement recently with a colleague, who has since had to get such feedback. My trust in the system is such that, despite our disagreement, I would have felt unreasonable in giving negative feedback. Yet a few years ago, because I was unwilling to follow the agenda of a former colleague, that person made some entirely unjustified public criticisms of me. Fortunately this was before the days of 360degree feedback, but how fair would that colleague's feedback on me have been?<br />Likewise, at my annual appraisal, I am supposed to report complaints and compliments from patients over the previous year. Again, such bouquets and brickbats often say more about the bestower, and only I know which are justified and which, positive or negative, are not. I will have to report a time-consuming complaint arising from my following local prescribing policy (that I have my concerns about anyway), and I get very nice letters where the subtext to anyone who knows the situation is "look I am being extra nice to you, so you Will stop challenging me about the number of sleeping tablets, won't you?" Any honest GP is also likely to tell stories of fulsome thanks from patients or relatives where the GP is very aware that they did not manage the illness as well as they would have hoped.<br /><br />And so, when I see many parallels between what is being proposed in this report and what I see in a rather negative light in the NHS, I cannot help but have a lot of concerns.<br /><br />Of course, the other side of the coin is to ask what, in the corporate world, do good managers actually achieve? Do they achieve good customer service, a good working environment, and financial stability, or do they provide skills at evading corporate responsibility, ever more efficient ways for business to provide as little bang for as much buck as possible, and ways for senior management to maximise their bonuses and move on to new troughs before the chickens of short-termism come home to roost?<br /><br />I am not anti-management, but management should be about enabling and supporting the coal-face workers (clergy, nurses, doctors etc) in performign their roles rather than in deciding their priorities and working practices for them.JonGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-55876995161723818492014-12-19T17:27:03.777+00:002014-12-19T17:27:03.777+00:00Thank you both for your comments - perhaps I'm...Thank you both for your comments - perhaps I'm not mad :-)Vic Van Den Berghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09581156515370131898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-12921748636909645132014-12-19T15:58:06.448+00:002014-12-19T15:58:06.448+00:00Agree with pretty much everything you say about th...Agree with pretty much everything you say about the Green report. Rod Clark, Rector of Lichfield St Chad'sAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-68528690416548234052014-12-19T08:10:51.132+00:002014-12-19T08:10:51.132+00:00Well said. In a world where we're seeking unit...Well said. In a world where we're seeking unity within the Body of Christ, this is advocacy for disunity and the restoration of a #Class System, which I felt had disappeared in our Secular, Post-Modern, Post-Christian society.<br /><br />As a humble, trainee LLM, I struggle to understand how both Arch Bishops could sign up to this. Do, they really want to create a new division of elitist clergy, just as we start to get some gender equality into the church?<br /><br />The content and thrust of the measures proposed, show a total lack of knowledge of what is going on at the grass roots of the church and is totally disrespectful to the majority of Clergy and Laity (who are totally excluded from the pool) across the church.<br /><br />The proposals will create a self serving, self perpetuating elite, who might as well be a masonic society, Grand Masters and all - and of course, the rich vestments that they will wear will match such grandeur.<br /><br />It's time to slim down, not build up. If business can function by flattening structures, perhaps it's time that the church did the same.<br /><br />Vest the power in deaneries, with elected area/rural deans and let the Bishops ponce around looking good, but without any power.UKViewerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18114944341930758335noreply@blogger.com