14th February 2025

Standing ovation after Lancashire Vicar's call for national church strategy supporting working class ministry

BURNLEY Vicar Alex Frost received a standing ovation from the Church of England's General Synod on Wednesday as he proposed encouraging the Church to develop a strategy to welcome more working-class people as candidates for ministry. 

Fr Frost, from St Matthew's in Burnley, was speaking (pictured) to win support for his private member’s motion (PMM) arguing that the Church should seek to produce a 'national strategy for the encouragement, development and support of vocations, lay and ordained, of people from working-class backgrounds'. 

In the debate that followed, all members of synod supported the PMM. It was carried by an overwhelming majority, with no one voting against. 

Our Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev. Philip North, the Bishop of Blackburn, supported the motion himself, commenting: "For several years our nationally-funded pilot scheme 'M:Power' has been based in several locations around the County.

"M:Power is an unique project to train and equip people to share the good news of Jesus in urban communities; identifying, recognising, resourcing and enabling leaders from and for urban estates and other low-income communities. I'm sure our work in this area could feed into and inform a national strategy."

In his proposal speech, Fr Frost asked fellow Synod members to “embrace a discussion that unites our challenged church, and have a debate in which we can all agree.” 

“Working class people know who they are: if you are sitting here today asking yourself if you might be working class, then you aren’t.” 

“This motion represents our opportunity to be faithful to the Gospel, bold and ambitious, standing up for the vulnerable people of our country and communities. 

“This proposal offers up new ways of working that will rejuvenate the impact of our faith on society. Let’s tear down the curtain!” 

The Church will now consider the implications of the adoption of Fr Frost’s proposed strategy and work up a timetable for implementation. 

Speaking to Premier Christian Radio after the debate (listen here) Fr Frost said: “Lots of people in Synod were really positive - I was amazed to get a standing ovation! The church has got to be for people of all cultures and backgrounds.

"The message to those people who have a Christian faith, are maybe not academic but feel they have something to offer, is they definitely do. This a real opportunity for the church to try something different and reach a much wider audience, where there is huge potential; a rich harvest waiting."

• Fr Alex also spoke to every regional radio station on the BBC network over a two-hour period about the outcome of the debate on his PMM. You can listen to the interview he did at that time with BBC Radio Lancashire here on BBC Sounds from 1h 50m 30s (available for four weeks). 

Below is our story issued to media before the debate ... 

A Lancashire vicar is seeking to encourage the national Church of England to develop a strategy to ensure more working-class candidates enter ministry.

Fr Alex Frost (pictured), from St Matthew's in Burnley, will step onto the national stage at the Church of England 'Parliament' (known as the General Synod) in London tomorrow.

He will speak to win support for a 'private member’s motion' (PMM) arguing the Church should seek to produce a 'national strategy for the encouragement, development and support of vocations, lay and ordained, of people from working-class backgrounds'.

In Blackburn Diocese where Alex serves (The Church of England in Lancashire) there has already been a lot of work in encouraging people from working class and urban backgrounds to enter leadership; particularly through a nationally-funded pilot initiative named ‘M:Power’.

Alex proudly wears his working-class credentials, having left school at the age of 15 before working for Argos for many years.

He hopes a new strategy would encourage a wider leadership base and combat the hurdles that better educated and wealthier candidates can find less of a challenge. Alex has his own YouTube channel and podcast - ‘The God Cast’ - and he discusses his PMM in a special edition of The God Cast available here.

His own work in Burnley has had national recognition in news broadcasts as he and his team seek to support marginalised people facing huge social, physical and mental challenges through poverty and difficult life choices.

In late 2023 he even welcomed Sarah, Duchess of York, to Burnley. Sarah had been funding some of St Matthew's work behind the scenes up to that point.

Alex's motion suggests greater diversity of training paths and alternatives to the time-honoured college based, residential courses for clergy and lay leader education and development.

Often Synod motions can take a while to rise to the top of the pile, so Alex was delighted his was slated for discussion at this Synod after proposing it just last year; an indication, he hopes, of the seriousness with which it is being taken by the national church.

He said today: “There’s an untapped resource of life skills waiting to be used in ministry. I'm suggesting training that is less classroom-based and more context based. Previous surveys of clergy reveal support for a more contextual approach.

"The development of context-based learning needs to include contributions from working class people with a variety of life skills.

In his submission with the motion, Alex says that working-class people often find it difficult to respond to a calling to ministry because of ‘middle-class expectations’ and ‘assumptions throughout the Church'.

Alex commented: “The first concern should be whether a person is called by God to a given ministry. I’m not for promoting differences between people, I’m for including everybody in the drive to build our church.

"In a nutshell, a new approach to developing leaders is needed, one that recognises the value of the experience of life as well as the importance of the classroom. The greater the experience of living with a variety of people and situations, the more prepared we are for helping any community in the journey of faith.”

Ronnie Semley, February 2025