Episode 1 Vicar Academy

The Church in Wales -

a traditional institution, with hymns, prayers and Communion.

Business has been good for millennia but with ageing congregations,

falling numbers, and abandoned buildings,

the church is facing a serious religious recession.

So does the answer lie within these walls,

at St Michael's College, Cardiff?

A new generation of priests is being prepared

for a life that is as likely to include the prison cell as the pulpit

and they're taking their message to the most unlikely places...

I've still got to write my sermon.

..the new recruits are stepping out of the scrum to tackle old ideas...

As a woman, you've got the Vicar of Dibley stereotype

and then you've got the lesbian stereotype.

There aren't many hot Christians.

..but will the church authorities embrace the new generation...?

I really do worry that the church isn't ready for people like me.

..and what will congregations make of the young upstarts...?

She was very competent.

..what will their reactions be when they try to mash up the mass?

In the 21st century the clergy have to get out there...

This is a fully working embalming theatre.

..but will the new kids at the altar get their dog collars?

Talked about leaving.

Yeah, itchy feet.

In this programme Huw finds life behind bars a little daunting...

Just being thrown straight out there like that

is going to be quite nerve-wracking I think.

..Roz has a bit of a problem with her sermon...

And even though there's only a couple of people here

I do have stage fright.

..and father of three, Steven, is struggling with the sacrifices of college life...

You know, I miss them terribly when I'm not home.

..this is the rollercoaster ride of the Vicar Academy.

It's the start of the autumn term at St Michael's College, Cardiff,

and we've been given unique access behind the scenes

over an entire year.

These students come from all walks of life

and have been thrown together in a very unusual place

the Church in Wales' own college for training vicars.

Nowhere else in the world

would you actually get such a vast variety of people.

We get 21-year-olds

and we have a quarter of the college that is below 26.

They face a massive challenge...

the Church in Wales has to change to survive.

A third of vicars will retire in the next five years,

a quarter of church members have gone in the past decade

and over 80 churches have recently closed.

Studies have predicted that if things stay the same

the Church in Wales could disappear within a generation.

'This place is totally different from 30 years ago.

'Industry has changed in Wales, the church has changed.'

It's not going to stop and so we actually have to have people

who are up for that change, who don't fear it.

The first year students are being shown around the college chapel

by vice principal Steven Roberts, and first things first

as they are taken through the basics of the communion service

but newcomer Roz Forbes isn't one known for her blind faith.

So, the first thing that you need to bring is... Not the water.

It depends.

OK, yes, it, yes.

So, I'll just show you the right way and...

THEY ALL LAUGH

Nobody looks beautiful after a rugby match!

Rugby playing, plain speaking Roz isn't the most obvious candidate

for life in the cloth and she's a girl with a lively past.

I worked as a door supervisor, or bouncer, I've also...

..worked as a security guard on a building site.

I've worked as a model, a nude model, for a particular artist.

Like, I did it for a particular class at first

and then he asked me if I would just post for him.

I loved that. That was really good fun.

None of Roz's family go to church

but she came to faith in her late teens.

Everything was fine in my life, average 17-year-old,

coming up 18, kind of thing.

I worked two different jobs, everything was great,

you know, no real problems.

Then I basically fell asleep one night. Woke up the next day

and, like, it was like somebody had put on glasses for me.

Before I thought I was seeing everything fine, and everything.

Everything was brilliant but these glasses had, like, kind of,

just awoken me to something else. I was missing something.

Now I was seeing a clearer picture and I didn't know what it was.

There's more behind this. There's a story behind it.

There's a truth behind it.

But Roz's main worry is that as she comes closer to God

she won't get close to any boys.

It's not a sexy profession, I don't think.

As a bloke there is always some random woman in the congregation

who wants to get hitched to a vicar

so they can be, like, I don't know, a vicar's wife, or whatever.

You can't really start a conversation with, "Hi, I'm a vicar."

Roz isn't afraid of shocking others,

and she surprised everyone in a early bonding session,

where you have to say as much as you can before the match burns out.

I am passionate about rugby. It is the best game in the world.

It's the thing that brings you all together,

makes you put your body on the line for the other person

and the men are really quite hot to play it,

so that's always a bonus to watch!

And it is really good drinking, as well,

you get wasted with the people who you care about.

Training to be a vicar calls for many sacrifices

and a number of the students have turned their backs

on successful careers to follow their calling.

We have a woman who was the Bank of England agent in Wales,

earning a six-figure salary

and another student who commanded the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

in the last Iraq war,

and everything from 21-year-olds to 50-year-olds,

and a whole range of people in between.

At the annual celebrity visit there's pictures with the archbishops

and memories of a very different era.

When you and I were students,

colleges were quite close-knit communities.

Almost, not monastic in a serious way but very few families allowed.

That's right.

And the assumption was you'd be there throughout the week,

-throughout the term.

-That's right.

-Intensely residential and the pattern has changed...

-Changed totally, yeah.

But in fact, things haven't changed that much for one of the new recruits.

Steve Bunting has had to give up spending much time with his family,

as well as a large salary as a banker

in order to study on the course.

These are my Employee of the Month trophies that I got.

I used to work in a bank called Citibank and...

..I was working there while I very initially started the process.

It's just a reminder to me that this was another life

before the one I'm leading now.

Steve's had to sacrifice more than just money to follow his calling.

I'm a single father to three children.

I've got Ryan, who's nine, Katie Grace, who's six

and Sam, who's four, and they keep me on my toes.

I hope that when I start ministry that it'll be, you know,

a ministry of the four of us together.

You know, they're getting used to,

now, after several years of their dad's a vicar.

Dad wears dresses on Sundays!

Living away from his children during the week has been a challenge for Steve,

but he's brought a bit of his family with him to campus.

You know, I miss them terribly when I'm not home and...

I miss the noise then. I miss...

I miss the fact that...

even though its drives me mad,

Sam will is common jump in bed with m, in the morning

and the night, he'll just come for a cuddle.

You do wonder why you put yourself through it

but then you remember why,

you know, and sometimes you've got to be reminded why.

There are people in Wales who are putting their money

in their pocket each week,

who haven't got much money, to pay for me to be here.

That's where the money comes from.

You know, I've got to bear that in mind

and realise how privileged I am that I am here doing this.

And I chose, you know, to train in this way, you know, at this time

but that doesn't mean it's not difficult but I'm, you know...

it will be worth it in the end, I think.

North Walian Huw Bryant is another vicar to be with a colourful past.

He's a man with a love of protesting.

We'll go along to places like Faslane Peace Camp

and join in the protest marches.

I mean, I used to sit there all winter waiting for May Day

so we could march on London.

And just because he wants to be a minister

it doesn't mean he's putting away his tools of protest.

The real reason for having a banner,

after protesting in London, where the Met cop is keeping an eye on you...

..is you have a stick if they attack you.

But most of the ones I've been on before have been, like,

the big anti-war ones that we had before the Afghan war

and the Iraq war.

There we go. Has it gone through?

It's there.

That should hold a bit on there.

Today Huw's joined a small protest at the National Assembly

against the closure of rural public toilets.

We arrived a bit late so I think most of them have already gone in

but they said there's about 100 people or so,

which is really good, considering the weather.

Huw's home life isn't that conventional either

and he isn't married to your typical vicar's wife.

My wife's not Christian, Buddhist by tradition

but not really practising and not searching.

I met her working in a hotel, in London.

She certainly didn't have any idea that this was coming,

any more than I did!

I think the biggest job was sitting you down and going,

"You do realise vicarage life means this." And you going,

"Bugger off and try it. If we get divorced, we get divorced."

At the end of the day that's your job, not my job.

You know, everything that goes on in our lives,

I've got my faith to sustain me.

All she's got is me.

Huw wants to take his unusual mixture

of beliefs and backgrounds into the church to liven things up.

I'm a contradiction.

While I like to think of myself as an anarchist,

I do have a tendency to like ritual, routine and rules.

But I certainly think we need to do a lot more

to become free in this country.

Both from a Christian point of view and a political point of view.

I will be as outlandish in my theology as possible

because it makes everybody think.

It's only when people are really pushed that you find out what

they really believe rather than what they've been told to believe.

The students at St Michael's spend a lot of time in the classroom

on academic and Bible study.

They're also taught the practical basics of the church's traditions -

how to conduct baptisms and weddings,

and of course the regular Sunday sermon.

Roz is soon to face her first assessed sermon,

with the vice principal of the college sitting in the congregation.

One of the first steps to the perfect preach

is ensuring that the voice is in good working order.

And like all other first years,

Roz has come for a session with voice coach Emma Stevens Johnson

in preparation for the sermon X Factor.

Let's hear you read something and then we will go from there. OK.

Even though there's only a couple of people here I do have stage fright.

-It might be a bit...

-It's all right, don't worry.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.

And the Word was God. He was in...

Oh, I can't even read!

Tutor Emma is a little anxious at Roz's obvious nerves

and wants to go back to basics.

Tell me a little bit about how you got here today.

As in, I woke up at 7:30am. I made a cup of coffee.

I had an awful hangover.

I crawled out of bed, got to lunch, felt miserable and sick

and now I'm here talking to you.

The rate at which you speak, they've said that this is fine?

-I would slow it down for the bigger churches.

-Yeah.

So it has time to come back to you and everything.

And actually you do need to slow it down a little bit

-for even spaces as small as this.

-Right.

Even in the pulpit, how you say it is as important as what you say,

and Emma is worried about the tension in Roz's voice.

So the first thing is just a basic hamstring stretch against the wall.

This is going to warm up your breathing muscles.

What you're going to do is take a breath in through the nose

and out through the mouth.

So I'm going to...

I know it's cold, I'm going to put my hands on your diaphragm if that's OK.

-Yeah.

-So your diaphragm is around about here.

This is keeping your shoulders straight

and it's warming up the right bits.

What I want you to do is take a good breath in.

And let it out through the mouth.

Because as soon as you can move your shoulders

you're moving the wrong bit.

Think about this bit of your body working, not your shoulders.

Breathing sorted, it's on to facial exercises.

The first one I want you to do is with your top lip.

You're just going to move it around.

Then you are going to snarl like a rabbit.

That starts your lip going up there.

-I can't do that.

-Exactly, you see.

But what has Roz made of her unforgiving afternoon

with a hard task master?

I quite enjoyed it and there's nothing wrong with my voice. Get in!

I can blag it, I can come across as all confident and it's fine.

The true test for Roz will come in in a few days

she will have to do it for real in front of a congregation.

He pours it out in abundance...

As well as preaching in parishes,

the students are sent on a variety of placements.

These take them out into the community

to a huge range of chaplaincies and projects.

They also include experience of working in prison.

For Huw Bryant this will have a personal relevance.

I've fallen foul of the law once or twice in the past.

Needless to say I don't drink any more now.

I've learned my lesson, especially being married and with kids

and having responsibility.

Going into the prison

and knowing that with my own past

I could easily have ended up in there myself,

it's quite nerve wracking to go and see these people

and knowing that I could easily have ended up in there myself.

During his time at Cardiff prison, Huw will be under the guidance

of chaplain Mark John,

who's there to show him the ropes and keep him safe.

Huw's first taste of life behind bars

is a meeting with the other chaplains in the prison,

which include a Muslim, a Catholic and a Pagan.

-Huw, this is Andrew, Andrew is a Catholic chaplain.

-Huw, how are you?

You've already met Graham, an officer working with us.

-And this is Kamal. He is one of the Muslim chaplains here.

-Nice to meet you.

So we're all on duty today and we tend to try and meet here

about this time in the morning, just to work out what we are going to do.

I know Ty, our Pagan chaplain, is also coming in this morning

so she could be part of that and help out.

So that'll be another thing of learning for you,

you've got a Muslim who's tame, he's nice as well, promise you!

Because everything in the prison service

is done in a multi-faith way.

Part of a chaplain's work is to keep an eye out

for any vulnerable prisoners who could harm themselves,

and report their worries to the prison authorities.

It may be they say something to us that would be an insight.

So if someone is feeling particularly low in mood,

you might pick up that they said it was their granny's birthday.

I think we're going in at the deep end here,

going down to the healthcare unit.

I know it was going to be...

You have to go out and meet the prisoners, but just being

thrown straight out there like that is going to be quite nerve wracking.

Generally, people only hear about prison when something bad has happened.

There's been a death, somebody has escaped. So to come in...

You hear the doors clanking, you see people around.

Often it's shocking that they see so many prisoners around.

You think, "It's a prison, what are they doing all milling round?"

So all of those kind of things go through your head.

Also for Huw this morning, it's the very fact

he's wearing a clerical collar for the first time,

it must make him feel a bit strange.

It's all part of a learning experience actually.

It's just all the lads coming back from the gym.

If you just follow on there.

Go on through the next door, you'll be fine.

Cheers, mate.

Basically, if you stick with me you're going to be all right.

If you feel uncomfortable about something just tell me.

There are a series of alarm bells on the wall.

You only press the alarm bell

if you fear your safety or something's going out

that you can't control or you're in a difficult situation.

There'll be staff on the wing anyway,

so there's nothing really to worry about.

The key thing is just be sensible.

If you have a question, ask, however it feels.

You're in here to learn and...

With going into cells and things,

do you still, common courtesy, knock before going in?

I always knock, yeah.

The chaplains come face to face with serious criminals on a daily basis.

And some are facing potential life sentences.

Murder charge. He's still asleep, he's still asleep.

Huw's first experience of the day is on the healthcare wing,

and his nerves are obvious

on the way to meeting the morning's first new arrival.

It's Mark from the chaplaincy. This is Huw, who is with me.

He is a trainee vicar.

-How are you feeling, not very good?

-No.

What the offence?

Er, sexual.

OK. What religion are you?

Would you say you're an atheist?

Don't believe in anything? So you are saying you're an agnostic, not really bothered.

Yeah.

That's fine. I leave you to it. Right, let's go.

Obviously the gentleman didn't want to engage very much

so I couldn't really draw you in to the interview.

We just needed to get the information we needed.

When you say he's on remand, is that...? He's been charged or..?

He's been charged but basically, the nature of the offence means

he has to be held in custody until that time.

-So it's until the trial.

-Yeah.

Let's see if we can get to the next one now.

For a chaplain like Mark, who's been in the role for many years,

there's not much he hasn't seen or confronted.

But for a student like Huw, it's going to be a long and challenging day.

Sometimes he comes over as not having the confidence in certain situations

and hopefully this will boost up his confidence.

"I work in Cardiff Prison, I've dealt with some quite serious things.

"They were thrown on my toes, I had to sit and talk to new prisoners,

"I had to visit people in a punishment block in healthcare.

"And I coped. I got through that,

"and people thought what I did was not silly or off the wall."

I don't have any authority.

So I don't know how much you're supposed to say, "Oi, behave,

"get back in your cell", sort of thing, or...

It's a very strange thing to get used to,

how much to be authoritarian and how much not to be.

Former bank manager and father of three, Steven Bunting,

now in his third year, has delivered many sermons.

But today is the first time that vice principal Steven Roberts

will hear him in the pulpit.

Having learnt that some of the best sermons come from personal experience,

will his very personal message convince the congregation,

and the judge?

I'll talk about the fact that I used to work in a bank.

I used to get well paid. In some ways you've gained the whole world,

but you've lost your soul,

and taking it across what are the consequences of following Jesus.

The last words were put together last night.

I did most of it Tuesday but then I let it fester over a few days.

Well, in fact, I just changed two words in the car,

before I got out the car. Last minute additions. But, yeah.

No, it's I'm fairly confident it should be OK.

But is Steven's confidence really justified?

I used to have to go to people's houses to ask them

for loan payments if they'd missed them,

and see the desperate situation they were in.

We used to have huge targets to sell insurance to customers

which may not necessarily need it,

and I felt like I was receiving money for ruining other people's lives.

And I couldn't do it any more.

So I had a choice to make, and the choice I made was to follow Jesus,

and trust that he would work out a plan for me in my life.

So, what does vice principal Steven Roberts make of the sermon?

I'm very happy with what I've heard.

I think it can be very, very effective when people talk about

their own experiences when preaching

because it shows that the text has in fact spoken to them.

For me, this was one of the easiest sermons I've ever written,

cos as soon as I saw the passage, I was like,

this sums up my life in the last ten years.

I think we've all got to question what every aspect of job,

whether it's banker, doctor, teacher. Whatever it is.

Are we doing the best? If we're trying to follow Jesus,

does that live out in the job that we do?

Back in Cardiff Prison,

the challenges don't get any tougher than this.

The chaplains play a special role for prisoners who are on suicide watch,

offering a sympathetic ear to those at the end of their tether.

What's your first name?

Aaron.

-Aaron.

-Yeah.

Hiya. I'm just checking on you.

What's been up?

I've been having bad thoughts, that's all.

Have you?

My missus and kid got me down when I first come in.

Yeah.

It's my first time in here as well.

So I just thought about killing myself.

Did you? So how are you feeling now?

I still have my bad thoughts in the night, getting better in the days,

but it's the nights more than anything.

Cos you've got time on your hands, it's difficult to work out...

Mmm. It's just frustrating.

Yeah.

And with him as well, he's getting older.

How old's he?

Two now. The only thing that stopped me.

Well, that's a very positive thought.

Like I came that close...

That's your partner, is it?

Yeah.

She's far too pretty for you. Look at you!

She looks lovely! That's what you've got to live for, isn't it?

That's very important.

Keep that in front of you when you have the silly thoughts.

Wednesday, I nearly came close cos they showed up late for the visit.

It's the first visit since I've been in.

I only had 15 minutes with 'em so I went a bit off my head then.

But fair enough, they've got someone here that listens,

so he listened to me, so I got through it.

Excellent.

Keep thinking positive, right? You take care of yourself.

-And you. Thank you.

-No problem.

The chaplains are expected to keep a close eye on vulnerable prisoners,

and have procedures to flag up risks of self-harm.

Obviously you can see there, we had a conversation

and he's thinking about things in the future,

he's thinking about his child, his partner,

so he reacted when he come in but he's now thinking more sensibly.

So that's the sort of situation.

Looking at it, obviously there are other issues

and we have to weigh that up but from my conversation in there,

I feel in some senses he's more positively thinking, looking forward.

Yeah? I'll just put a little comment to that effect.

With the first day drawing to a close,

how's Huw coping with the overwhelming experiences of the prison?

It's certainly an eye-opener.

It'll take quite a bit of getting used to being in here.

The vicar is very much still the centre of community.

Sadly that's been lost in the rest of society.

So er...

I might gain ways of bringing that back.

It's the sermon X-Factor final

and Roz has to face a bustling city centre church with a congregation

that includes the Simon Cowell of the preaching world,

St Michael's vice principal Steven Roberts.

Roz's main concern is what she might say in the heat of the pulpit.

When I get nervous, I tend to revert to only a few subjects.

They shouldn't really be talked about on a pulpit, so...!

I get the shakes and I feel sick,

and you have to live with it and get over it.

You've just got to pace around beforehand, not talk to anybody.

It's a bit like going on for a rugby match actually.

You get in your mindset your own way.

Stressed and anxious. There we go.

And there's just time for a final word of advice

from an experienced parish priest.

Just go for it, you'll be fine. Go for it and stick with it.

Stick with what you've written. You've written it. Deliver it.

You'll be fine. You'll be fine.

No turning back now.

Steven Roberts and the rest of the congregation

are ready to hang on Roz's every word.

I recently watched America's Next Top Model,

which is a trashy TV programme, like a talent show to become a model.

It had an episode where a marketing director came in

and told these beautiful women that a word,

a single word, should be what their fans and audiences

relate to them with.

So what do you think your word is?

Are you organised? Spontaneous?

Adaptable? Creative?

I wonder if any of us believe our word to be

Christian, religious or faithful?

I thought it went very well indeed. She was obviously nervous

but the nerves didn't detract from what she was doing.

I could clearly hear her very clearly, very audibly.

You should be the best that you can be and like, if you're not

then you're falling short of that marker, and of your own potential.

I'd stopped taking notes and I was listening

and I was thinking about how this related to me,

and so I thought if she can take me out of sermon assessment mode

into reflection mode, that's pretty good.

I felt really rushed. I can't remember how it went.

I felt like I missed pages.

I felt stressed and nervous during it,

and I felt completely disheartened.

And... Yeah.

There was a real passion I thought,

a real underlying sense of speaking to people

about something that mattered, that was important.

But back at the college,

Roz has very mixed feelings about the first term.

The routine of academic study is not really what she had in mind.

Her younger sister has come to take her home for the weekend,

and she's got a lot of thinking to do.

I can't say that I've particularly enjoyed every moment of it.

Erm...

Talked about leaving, talked about staying,

talked about changing stuff,

being really lazy when it came to morning prayer

because I got annoyed and frustrated.

I haven't helped anybody since I've been here,

which is rubbish, cos I like helping.

It'd be so much easier just to... do something different.

Yeah, itchy feet is just going to play hell.

Next time -

Huw makes new friends behind the bars of Cardiff Prison...

-Was he all right?

-Nice meeting you.

-Sure now?

..Roz seeks an escape from college life...

Gets out some pent-up aggression. It's good to have a run around.

..and vicar-to-be Marcus finds hope in Merthyr.

Yeah, it's quite an inspirational operation.

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