New Kid on the Blog

I must admit to a fair amount of heartache on moving away from Bourn a few weeks back. To see the house that had been our home for the past four years empty and set off to a place which the family didn't know was quite a daunting experience. After the frustration of our ISP shutting down my account a day early (and then completely cancelling it rather than transferring as requested so it ended up taking six weeks to get back online and to have our phone service up and working - as both are tied in together) I was annoyed at not being able to send out changes of address to my online contacts or to tie up the last few ends I planned to. Our moving weekend was split - packed on the Thursday and Friday, then we stayed with the lovely wife's sister for a couple of nights and went to a friend's wedding which was a great way to distract us from all that was going on. The wedding was a great day, with a Priest who looked like Father Jack from Father Ted! Then a reception at an a...

As you might have guessed, the painful process of moving has been preoccupying me for the past few weeks so blogging has gone right out of the window! In fact I am sitting here in my study, empty except for my PC and junk on the desk, surrounded by boxes, whilst the removal company men are stopping for lunch. It's an odd time, a certain sense of excitement at moving on, with some trepidation about what's next and a huge sadness at what we are leaving behind. There's much that is good and worth celebrating about this Team of Parishes and the clergy colleagues I have, we have made great friends here and been very happy, though we have had lots to do and it has been very hard work much of the time.... I think that the most striking thing had been, looking back, how much I've learnt, how my life has changed, and how I have discovered much of who I am as a minister and as a person. These revelations haven't all been easy, and there's been some heartache and strug...

Life at the moment is a series of small endings, final PCCs, final services in some Churches, last visits to people, a huge amount of sorting out. In the midst of this we had a new beginning, as our new Team Rector took office at a rather lavish ceremony in one of our Team Churches on Wednesday evening, we had the Bishop of Ely , our Archdeacon , the Rural Dean and a host of civic dignitaries come and and mark the beginning of this new phase in the life of our Team. I have tried to avoid talking too much about my leaving until this point, as I didn't want the two to be confused - as I have said countless times, the appointment of a new Team Rector is nothing to do with my moving on, in fact it was one of the factors that made it harder to think about moving as she will be a real boon for the team, and having worked with her for four years I am constantly impressed by her vision, her pastoral skills and her energy and sensitivity in ministry. So we had a great service, at which I h...

To be honest, that last post was a bit useless, so much to say and little motivation - due to the whole 'catching up' thing that sometimes makes holidays feel like and intrusion rather than a liberation. I have actually been back at work for a week, and don't really seem to have achieved much at all - it feels as though I've been paddling madly and getting nowhere... The reality of the fact that we are moving in seven weeks is really hitting home, when we were the other side of our holiday it all seemed a very long way away, now its only a few weeks off I find myself thinking about how much I need to get done before I start packing let alone thinking about packing and moving and starting again. The announcement of my move has had one effect that, though not a great surprise has been quite overwhelming, the number of people who have expressed regret that we are going. I knew a few folk would be disappointed that we were leaving, but the strength and the sincerity of pe...

So, why no news? Well its partly been because I have no idea who reads or might stumble upon this blog, so I have had to keep my news off the radar until an official announcement! I have taken up the offer of a job in the South West of England, as Vicar of Six village Parishes on the Devon/Dorset Border! It's all been announced, and subject to me fulfilling the statutory formalities and conditions of the offer I will be off in October to pastures new... ...or rather pastures old, I was born six miles from where I am about to become Vicar and one of the villages which I will serve is a village I spent a lot of time in during my teens at with my brother's family. Even going back there on interview it felt very different to see everywhere from an 'adult' perspective, and it was exciting to hear about all the things which are going on in the churches in these villages - as well as the potential for more to happen in terms of outreach and of serving these communities. Th...