My penultimate term at Ridley ended on Thursday and the coming Easter term will seem even shorter than it usually does. And as usual I have lots to write over the vacation, partly self-imposed this time as I intend to get the one essay due this semester done and dusted to leave the Easter term in which to get the most of the work on the dissertation done and a good draft prepared. The MA in Pastoral Theology costs about 40,000 words one way or another. In the three years I’ve been here there’s only been one vacation out of a total of eight in which I haven’t done some work, and that was really only because I wasn’t an ordinand then. Good job that I like writing.
This Sunday will be the last at my attachment church, and I am leading the service. It’s been a good place to be and I will miss the people, who have been gracious and welcoming. Not so the lack of heating…I have become used to seeing my breath in front of me when preaching or leading. Thank goodness it is a church where the clergy robe up. Although I have a sneaky feeling that one at least of the three churches I am going to might be similarly challenged.
And Sunday will be extra-busy this week as a member of our particular sermon class preaches at an 8 am BCP service to the north of Cambridge, and I have to be at my attachment to the southwest of Cambridge by about 9 am – breakfast is an interesting idea, given that my attachment church doesn’t have a loo. Add the rehearsal and performance of the Brahms ‘German Requiem’ by the Cambridge Philharmonic Society and another sermon class assessment at 5 pm – plus the loss of an hour for the clocks going forward for British Summer Time. So…early to bed this evening, I think.
The Future is rapidly becoming the Present. Ordination is 3 months and 1 week away, and paperwork arrives frequently from the Diocese. This morning it’s the third set of CRB forms that I have been asked to complete in three years. Yesterday it was something about stipend, and last week a very welcome email telling me what work the Diocese will do on the vicarage, which is most of what needs doing. I expect the request for various evidences of baptism and so on soon. And I’ve been told that the details about the ordination will be sent out shortly. Meanwhile I have already – poor, sad person that I am – sorted out somewhere for people supporting me to gather after the ordination service. How to reconcile this with living in the Now…?
This Sunday will be the last at my attachment church, and I am leading the service. It’s been a good place to be and I will miss the people, who have been gracious and welcoming. Not so the lack of heating…I have become used to seeing my breath in front of me when preaching or leading. Thank goodness it is a church where the clergy robe up. Although I have a sneaky feeling that one at least of the three churches I am going to might be similarly challenged.
And Sunday will be extra-busy this week as a member of our particular sermon class preaches at an 8 am BCP service to the north of Cambridge, and I have to be at my attachment to the southwest of Cambridge by about 9 am – breakfast is an interesting idea, given that my attachment church doesn’t have a loo. Add the rehearsal and performance of the Brahms ‘German Requiem’ by the Cambridge Philharmonic Society and another sermon class assessment at 5 pm – plus the loss of an hour for the clocks going forward for British Summer Time. So…early to bed this evening, I think.
The Future is rapidly becoming the Present. Ordination is 3 months and 1 week away, and paperwork arrives frequently from the Diocese. This morning it’s the third set of CRB forms that I have been asked to complete in three years. Yesterday it was something about stipend, and last week a very welcome email telling me what work the Diocese will do on the vicarage, which is most of what needs doing. I expect the request for various evidences of baptism and so on soon. And I’ve been told that the details about the ordination will be sent out shortly. Meanwhile I have already – poor, sad person that I am – sorted out somewhere for people supporting me to gather after the ordination service. How to reconcile this with living in the Now…?
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