‘The Curate’s Guide: from calling to first parish’ is an in-depth and fascinating book, written, according to the introduction for those considering ordination, those in training (both pre-and post ordination) and for incumbents. This seems a vast potential audience to be aiming at, and yet sections of the book are indeed pertinent to each group of people.
The first section which deals mainly with pre-training issues, includes helpful explanations of terms bandied around by seemingly everyone in the Anglican world. By explaining basic words such as ‘curate’ and ‘diocese’ it answers all the questions someone should have answered but didn’t because we were all too afraid to ask! It describes the selection process, the differences between stipendiary, non-stipendiary and Ordained Local ministries in an informative way backed up by a range of people’s personal experience. This first part, particularly, I would recommend to anyone weighing up a calling to ordained ministry.
The book then moves on to sections which deal with various aspects of early ministry life; issues ranging from wearing a dog collar, having a spiritual director, the vulnerability of working in a parish, the juggle of family life (with even a paragraph on a pregnant curate!!), and so on. In looking at these issues the book manages to avoid being prescriptive of what a curate’s life should be like, instead affirming the variety of experience that people have and offering advice on classic pitfalls of the job. It seems to me that the editor, John Witcombe, Dean of St John’s College, Nottingham, is perfectly placed to have oversight of such a book, which succeeds in being both authoritative and insightful.
It is a book I wish I had read on my pre-ordination retreat, for it combines practical wisdom with inspiring detail. It is therefore, a book that would both encourage and inform, a book that should be on every ordinand’s book shelf. As for me, it made me giggle about things that are all too true, and muse on aspects of the job that I have perhaps let 
slip and I finished it feeling validated and motivated.
Em Coley has finished her curacy in Wendover with Halton, Bucks and was priested in June. She is pregnant with her first child.
The Curate's Guide
Edited by John Witcombe
Published by Church House Publishing
Priced at £11.99
