Quite a week

I have had in the back of my mind to blog for the past few days, but sitting down and committing thoughts to paper, or ether, has been an elusive process for me. Thank you for birthday wishes, it was a very good weekend with some pleasant surprises - particularly some of the friend's lovely wife invited for the celebrations. Good party on Saturday night, the local pub did us proud, with a smaller, very pleasant, meal out together at a pub on the blustery seafront at Lyme Regis on Sunday. I can recommend the Harbour inn (apart from slightly grumpy restaurant manager, but I think Maitre D'Hotel's are meant to be like that, tradition or an old charter or something).

Monday saw a day 'conference' on the title of 'Moving On With Your Mission Community' to which I went (late, due to Assembly commitments with the local school) with two 'Lay Leaders' from the local Churches. It was a day which talked about the difficulties and joys of learning to work in new ways in our Diocese where Churches are being moved towards the status of Mission Communities. There's probably quite a lot to be said about that which I can't put down now as I am off to take an assembly!

Tuesday was busy with funeral visiting, services and some meetings, along with a fair amount of admin. There is progress on the appointment of an Admin Assistant for me, so that particular bane of my life should be lessened in the coming weeks.

Yesterday seemed to be very busy - in an unexpected way. Having thought I had little to do I ended with with appointments through the day and found myself in the car to various destinations around the villages, and another funeral visit (I always do two before a funeral) and a very enjoyable lunch to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday. I could get used to this pub lunch culture, all i would have to do is sell everything I own on eBay....

Today is another busy one. I have officiated at the funeral which took some preparation this morning. A sad goodbye to a real Village character, of which there are few left. The service was greatly enhanced by a recording made of the deceased some years ago in which he shared some of his thoughts and stories. There were a couple of minute long clips, so it wasn't either mawkish or creepy, which might have been the case if they had gone on too much. Following the wake I am now off to do an assembly, then back to prepare and then lead our Lent Series, details of which I will post soon.

So, a quick resume of my past few days, mainly in the hope that this will prompt me to get on with some reflection about Ministry and Mission in these bodies we are calling Mission Communities. I have had much to think on, with little space to think, hopefully reflecting on this will bring about some comments later!

Catch you later.