In Fire Bearer: Evoking a Priestly Humanity Episcopal priest and pastoral psychotherapist Michael Dwinell challenges men and women to see themselves as "agents of transformation." The vocation of priest involves courage, faithfulness, and the determination to make a difference in the world.
Although we mainly think of this term in light of ministerial priesthood, Dwinell expands it to mean much more. Through 32 creative meditations, he lets light in from all sides on the role of priest. There are poems, dream narratives, a letter from a woman to her therapist, an account from a nursing mother, meditations from ministers, and selections from Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton.
Dwinell notes, "Only when our ministries are shaped by the power of images and metaphors that spring up from the deepest recesses of our souls, are we able to know who and what is priest." That is why priest makes use of humor, sexuality, silence, vulnerability, matter, and wound. That is why priest is always wrestling with vocation and never able to accept the status quo. That is why priest is servant of ceremony which brings our souls alive and stops us in our tracks. And, finally, that is why priest is death's friend.
Fire Bearer is a book that is meant to startle clergy and laity with its bold images and its paradoxical parables. Dwinell succeeds in his mission and manages to give substantive new meaning to the vocation of priest.