HOLY DISORDER, Geoff Smith’s semi-autobiographical novel, is set in a time of change and challenge for the Church of England, the 1970s, and we follow the life of Dave, a working-class lad from Manchester, on his path from theological college to ordination through a parish curacy to becoming senior curate at a cathedral and eventually rising to the dizzy heights of being chaplain to the local bishop.

Little in his life up to this point, and certainly not his time spent in a theological college, has prepared Dave for what he finds during his curacy under the wing of his whisky-priest-cum-poet but, none the less, wise and supportive incumbent, EBG.

There is an affair with a parishioner apparently in distress but certainly aware of her power to seduce a sex-starved young curate, and also the predatory and grooming attention of the ambitious Bishop’s Chaplain, which culminates in a vicious attack.

And then there is the manner in which the Church in which Dave, now the Revd David Saxon, finds himself seems more interested in what look like issues of its own making. “There is a world out there, and it is hurting.”

It is a time of change indeed. The question of women priests is coming to a head, as are issues of human sexuality and union with the Methodists, but also Dave’s own troubles, focused on his affair with Gilly, and his bewilderment in encountering a life that isn’t quite ready for his working-class background.

While Holy Disorder may not be quite the classic in the making which it is hailed to be on the back cover, and Smith is no Trollope in his observation of character, it is certainly a gripping read; perhaps it ought even to be required reading for aspirants to ordained ministry.

What Smith observes so well through the lens of his protagonist and the latter’s encounters with hierarchy and parishioners alike is unresolved and, perhaps, unnamed issues of class and social difference, for which theological education may be ill equipped to prepare its candidates.

 
Dr Natalie K. Watson is a theologian, editor, and writer based in Peterborough.

Holy Disorder
Geoff Smith
Foreshore Publishing £12.99*
(‎978-1-7395930-1-8)
*from foreshorepublishing.com