Introduction

The Anglican ordination service describes the work of a priest as that of a ‘servant and shepherd’, who is to ‘keep the Good Shepherd always before you as the pattern of your calling’. I expect other churches use similar words – after all, ‘pastor’ is one of the commonest terms across the denominations to describe a Christian minister.

I wonder how much that imagery means to many in our urbanized western culture. Most people know that shepherds are people who wear tea-towels on their heads at Christmas and blow their nails when icicles hang by the wall, but how many have met a real shepherd, let alone understand what the shepherd's work involves?

So we country folk have an advantage. Here among the hills of Meirionnydd, one member of my ministry training group is a shepherd's wife and two others keep a few sheep, while a former member is now priest-in-charge of the same parishes where he was until recently a full-time shepherd. Such real-life links give added depth to the pastoral imagery.