Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Spring 2012 Issue | Page 7

THE VERY REV. DAVID MAY
Rector of Grace Church, Kilmarnock
Diocese of Virginia
The Very Rev. David Hickman May is the rector of Grace Church, Kilmarnock and dean of Region II.
He is married to Emily May, and they have two sons, John and Ben. Before being called to Grace,
David served as the rector of St. Andrew’s Church, Richmond and as assistant at Church of Our
Saviour, Charlottesville. He holds degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Virginia
Commonwealth University and the School of Theology, Sewanee. May, 52, has been ordained 18 years.

PASTOR-PROPHET

HEROES & HEROINES

BAPTISMAL COVENANT

In my own experience, the role
of the clergy to serve as pastor
and prophet are deeply related. In
particular, effective pastoral ministry
authenticates those times when clergy
are called to occupy a prophetic role.
The ministry of pastor in a parish is
most effective when the pastor and
the parish enjoy a shared trust in their
relationships and in their ministry
together. Though trust is formally
offered when a clergy is called to a
parish, my own conviction is that trust
must be earned, and earned again
and again. And when a parish and its
members trust their pastor’s voice and
judgment in the many different aspects
of parish life, that clergy person’s
voice and judgment is one that will be
listened to with real seriousness when
a more prophetic stance by the clergy
is called for.

I imagine this same dynamic
(where trust can set the stage for a
serious hearing when the pastor speaks
as prophet) is true for those called to
episcopal ministry. But, the nature
of how relationships are lived out is
quite different. There is not a local,
parish life where pastor and parish are
deeply available to one another in their
ongoing life together. I would imagine
this changes how those relationship
happen and thus how the role of pastor
and prophet are shaped.

My mind immediately goes to Flannery
O’Conner – the bearer of a prophetic,
two-edged-sword-of-a-voice if there
ever was one. Or, I am drawn to Mother
Teresa whose personal sanctity renders
religious partisanship irrelevant and
secondary in one fell swoop. Or I think
of the courage and depth of spirit of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose beautiful
heart never let him lose his humanity.
But for this exercise, I want to name
someone who would probably be
horrified to be named as anyone’s
“spiritual hero”: my seminary ethics
professor, Joe Monti. Joe has one of
those once-in-a-generation minds
whose command of all of the source
material is matched by his largeness of
heart. Things matter greatly to Joe. But
Joe would say, yes, the affections are
the appropriate way into the moral and
theological realm: things have to matter
to us. But it is simply not adequate
to stop there and speak only from
the place of the affections, however
passionately. That something “matters”
has to find its way into a wider and
deeper engagement with the tradition
and current context which together is
the means for arriving at a response
that forms an adequate and faithful
witness and proclamation.

My own core conviction that “everyone
has a story” is grounded in this promise.
No one is simply a “this” or a “that.”
People – all of us – do what we