Sarah's Story: Working for the Kingdom

It was whilst attending a Bishop’s Faith and Life course that Sarah found and identified with the description of the ‘kingdom’ spiritual type. Kingdom types offer leadership and vision to others. They care deeply about the wrongs in the world. They challenge the church to reflect on its action in the world and are repelled by too much ‘churchiness’ or religious dogma. They see their calling as co-workers with God in bringing in his kingdom in the places where they find themselves.

Having been brought up in South Africa at the time of apartheid Sarah was well aware of the need for a social gospel that would bring about real change in the ways communities lived in justice and truth. “South Africa at that time was a very polarised society with no shades of grey”, Sarah recalled, “and the church was just as polarised in its response to apartheid. Some churches supported the regime whilst others were more liberal. “Attending the Congregational Church, I was brought up to believe in the priesthood of all believers (and still do), that faith without works is dead and that for evil to succeed it is sufficient for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke).”

As well as being shaped by what she saw around her, Sarah was strongly influenced by reading Bonhoeffer’s Letters from Prison. “I have always been fascinated by martyrs though I recognise that I probably don’t have what it takes to be one myself.” For Sarah, martyrs are models for living with faith and showing the courage of their convictions. They witness to the truth as they see it.

When she finished her training as a doctor in South Africa, Sarah had a difficult choice. Should she stay in South Africa and fight the political system from within and end up in prison, work as doctor there, which would effectively have supported the regime, or should she leave? Like many of her generation she chose to move to the UK to continue her medical training. She is still not sure that this was the right decision. Eventually she found her way to Durham where she now practices as a consultant physician in the University Hospital.

On the face of it of course being a doctor allows plenty of opportunity to connect her Christian faith with her work. The opportunity to care for people, to show them respect and be involved with healing are obvious connection points and not specifically Christian. But given her background Sarah sees her work as offering her a great opportunity to exercise her kingdom building belief by identifying with the community’s needs. “I see the priority of my work is about providing good health care for the community and being willing to think ‘outside the box’ in doing this. It is all too easy in the NHS to feel that we are here to serve targets and financial constraints rather than the people around us.” Sarah sees that an important part of her kingdom work is to hold up this vision of service to the community – a vision which has been eroded in recent years. She recognises that her workplace is also a community and that her faith demands of her that she seeks to build up relationships within it, make others feel valued and try to avoid getting dragged down into reinforcing divisions

Sarah recognises that she is fortunate in that her position gives her the opportunity for influence and she seeks to use that for the wider social good. One of her projects has been to address the issues of poor health care in prisons. “We have three large prisons in our region and they are a microcosm of what the gospel is all about. She quotes Churchill: “The mood and temper of the public with regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country (1913).” She is not sure that we pass that test at the moment when rehabilitation in prisons is sacrificed to over-crowding and the public’s thirst for retribution. She would like to hear the church’s voice on that.

She also puts her energy into the field of education , working with NHS colleagues to raise aspirations in schools and give young people a vision of the possibilities in front of them in terms of careers and higher education. She has found many wonderful people among hospital staff who are willing to support her in this. She is delighted that she has now been awarded a grant of £70k to take forward this work with the hospitals in Co. Durham

Sarah believes that she has a duty to raise tough and challenging questions. She feels that a much more open debate is needed about the ways health care resources are applied to give the greatest quality of life overall. She wonders whether so much should be spent on prolonging the end of life when money might be more productively spent on children in poverty? It is vital as a church that we are prepared to be challenging and to raise questions that need confronting. “All too often I find myself sticking my neck out and getting my head chopped off. But one has a responsibility to speak out in accordance with one’s conscience. The gospel is about truth and one has to explore where this lies. It is also important that we try to see both sides of a question. We need to escape from prejudice and see an issue fairly.”

Like all kingdom people Sarah runs the risk of being dissatisfied not only with the injustices she sees around her but also with a lack of a public voice from the church on contentious issues – instead the church seems pre-occupied with its internal divisions on gay priests and female bishops (she supports both). She is also dissatisfied with herself. Kingdom people often feel they should be doing much more and living life closer to the edge. Modern Christian martyrs provide uncomfortable examples.

But God puts us in certain places for a reason and we are called to make a difference where we are placed. . She believes that we need to be bridge-builders and collaborators. Kingdom work needs to go on at all levels and in all places. You have to be there to have an impact. Being present is vital. The challenge is to get involved, push against the boundaries and make a difference with whatever is in front of you.