Vicar of Mixenden and Illingworth Revd Robb Sutherland enjoyed a visit to Lambeth Palace last week for lunch with Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally.
Robb was invited along with the Working Class Strategy Formation Task Group as part of the work of General Synod. The task group was set up as a temporary sub committee of the Ministry Development Board in response to a synod call last year for a strategy for encouraging the ministry of people from working class backgrounds.
The group reported back on its work to the General Synod meeting in February this year and Revd Robb gave a passionate speech about including working class people in all levels of church leadership - resulting in Archbishop Sarah extending the invitation to Lambeth, through the microphone, there and then.
Revd Robb, pictured far right with other members of the group and Archbishop Sarah, said: "At the Synod meeting in February, I spoke passionately about how the Church of England needs to have a cultural change to enable working class vocations across the whole of leadership structures. I used the example of an Iceland Prawn Ring to make the point that we need greater understanding of the realities of lived experience. Canapes and garden parties aren't necessarily what we have been brought up to expect - in my parish, when we break out the really posh food, 'Mums go to Iceland!'
"Meeting the Archbishop was a great privilege," Revd Robb added. "She was so keen to listen to our experiences and use her role to enable the kind of change we voted for at Synod. Whilst there, I talked about increasing finance to enable ordinands from working class backgrounds to be able to fully experience life at college, if that is what they need.
"We were even able to talk about the bigger questions that affect us all, such as how we finance ministry on the estates parishes that so many in our diocese live and breath every day."