C of E should offer working-class people apprenticeships, Burnley vicar says
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Rev Alex Frost calls for church to encourage vocations as an alternative to theological studies. Plumbers, builders and other people from working-class backgrounds who are called to the priesthood should be offered apprenticeships as an alternative to studying at theological college, a Burnley vicar has said.
Rev Alex Frost, who left school at 15 and worked for Argos before becoming a priest, is calling for the Church of England to develop an urgent national strategy to encourage vocations among working-class people. People from poorer backgrounds “can experience barriers to entering and flourishing in ministry”, Frost said in a paper to be submitted to next month’s meeting of the C of E’s ruling body, the General Synod.
Frost, who is vicar at St Matthew the Apostle in Burnley, said “My vision would be to see an apprenticeship scheme for people who have a portfolio of work rather than an academic body of work.”. He said the C of E had a “traditional academic way of teaching our ordinands [trainee priests], and this is an exciting opportunity to change the model completely, to revolutionise it, to turn it upside down, and to be more attractive to the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker”.
After leaving school with no qualifications, Frost worked in the retail sector, eventually becoming a store manager for Argos. His training for the priesthood was challenging. He said: “I had three kids. It wasn’t practical for me to go away and learn in an academic institution, but also I had no formal qualifications. What I did have was 20 years of on-the-ground working life.”.
