'Limping Priests' Ten Years Later: Formation for Ordained Ministry

Graham Hughes' article 'Limping Priests: Ministry and Ordination' appeared in Uniting Church Studies ten years ago, and its inclusion amongst a select range of 'sample articles' on the journal webpages (hnp://ucs.uca.org.au) may justifiably identify it as one of the highlights of the journal's neartwenty year history. No doubt amongst others, Stephen Pickard regards the article highly, describing it as 'careful, perceptive and prophetic'. The essay itself was a revised version of an address given in 2001 to the Georges River Presbytery of the (then) New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church. Hughes was at that time a long-lime member of the Unired 'l11eological College faculty, having (in 1977, after completing a doctorate on the Letter to rhe Hebrews) firsr been hired to reach the New Testament. Over time, he shifted focus to liturgical studies - a discipline to which his own contributions were honoured by the Festschrift Prayer and Thanksgiving of 2003 and in which his reputation was firmly cemented in 2005 with the publication of his significant book Worship as Meanint in the Cambridge University Press series of 'Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine', This placed Hughes among a limited range of Uniting Church theologians whose work has garnered international attention. Be that as it may, Hughes' influence in Australia has also been weighed heavily, as in William Emilsen and John Squires' estimation that Hughes 'has, perhaps, more than anyone else in the Ausrralian Church, deepened and disciplined our understanding of prayer and worship'.