Normally, it's a straight-up like-for-like exchange. I go to another church; that church's minister comes to mine. And we do each other's jobs for an agreed length of time.
In my case, the minister I'm swapping with is retired and so has no permanent ministry. He has instead arranged for me to provide 'preaching breaks' for three congregations in the UK: Leeds, Glasgow, and York. My congregation gets three consecutive services provided by the retired minister and his wife.
Thus, my geographically isolated-congregation will get a rather deeper experience with a highly experienced minister, and this geographically-isolated, mid-career minister (me) gets a rather less deep experience, but of a variety of congregations.
This is therefore a win-win. My congregation, which has had me consistently for 6.5 years, gets another deep experience of Unitarian ministry in a place where there just aren't any. I get a breadth of experience that cannot be afforded in Australia. It should be educative for everyone.
I have not been on a UK pulpit since Dean Row in 2011. My congregation has not had a Unitarian minister other than me since 2010. Much water has, as they say, been passed under the bridge during these years since. I have changed and adapted to the local context. The local context has adapted to me. It's easy to get stuck in our perceptions of what constitutes the Unitarian experience and Unitarian ministry's shaping of that experience. The swap should address that by providing much-needed perspective for both me and my charges,
What about the three congregations I'm visiting? Since I'm only at each for one service, what might they have to gain? "Einmal is Keinmal" as the Germans say. "Only once is never" Or, that which only happens once, might as well never have happened at all. So is this swap a waste of time for them? They are not, as many UK churches are, lacking for ministry. Two of them are run by awesome permanent ministers; one is lay-led, but has retired ministers in the congregation who take services.
So in their door blows an odd species--an Australian minister who doesn't sound it, whose ministry has developed in a context very different from theirs. What can this offer?
First, variety certainly, and at the very least they won't be as easily able to sit back and let the familiar sensory and cognitive experience of their accustomed service wash over them. They will have to engage afresh, learn to listen to a new way of thinking and delivering. Kind of like reading a book by an unfamiliar author--you might never read the author again, but once will have stretched you some.
Second, the swap can offer a handy preaching break for chronically over-worked ministers. No one who doesn't grind out freshly-baked worship on a weekly basis can have the least idea of how welcome that might be.
Third, they're not just getting a peripatetic minister, a wandering preacher, I. They're also getting the Unitarian brand ambassador for the antipodean region. Switching to my ANZUUA President's hat (there isn't an actual hat as part of the role...), I plan to value-add by outlining the state of the market in Australia and New Zealand and, I hope, establish permanent links between our congregations, the better to close the wide gap of distance between us. Who knows? Sister churches perhaps, like the twin-towns scheme?
So, not just a win-win, but a win-win-win, lifting all our little boats.
That's the aim anyway. Wish me luck, and a spring tide.
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