Bishop John Crowley reflects on conversations and people who have strengthened and encouraged his ministry as a priest and as a bishop.

‘Every day as long as this day lasts keep on encouraging each other so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin. Because we shall only remain co-heirs with Christ if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end.’ (Heb. 3.13–14)
Having recently reached the eighty-year mark, I find myself looking back on important conversations which strengthened and encouraged me over the years since being ordained a priest in 1965. They happened at timely moments which helped shape my approach to pastoral ministry as a priest and later as a bishop.

The first took place within weeks of my first appointment to Holy Trinity Church, Brook Green, west London. A parishioner called to see me because she wanted to suggest how I might think about preparing the Sunday homily. She was a marriage counsellor juggling a full-time job with her family responsibilities as wife and mother of three children. ‘At the moment I feel that I am doing neither well, and that depresses me.