She’s Coming Home

I did consider, briefly, becoming a celebrant when my parochial ministry came to an end. It has often been said that I ‘do a good funeral’ (I may have that inscribed on my tombstone), but I would have had to choose between doing so and honouring my ordination in the Church of England.

Something New

I’m doing something a bit new, or rather I am formalising something I have been playing with for a while. Interested? Read on….

A time for everything,

Bringing Compline to an end has not been an easy decision to make. Now though, continuing with Compline has begun to feel as though I am holding onto a past time, remaining tethered to a different time from the one we are now in.

New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work

Instead, spend some time listening to your own heart, spend time listening to the God who truly loves you. Perhaps instead of guilting yourself into cutting things out of your life, be loved into identifying and increasing the blessings until there is no room left for those things you would usually seek to eradicate with New Year’s Resolutions.

Are We in Business?

Building any business during a pandemic is complicated, if not impossible. I haven’t yet made a loss on any retreat, which is good news, I have only had positive feedback, and have even had repeat custom. As a ministry this is good, Godly, growth, but I have to account for it as a business.

Love is all you need?

This time last year I was preparing to ‘love bomb’ the villages in which I lived and served as the village vicar. I also knew that I would be leaving before the year was out.

How to Make a Sacred Space

What makes a space truly sacred, is the time spent praying within it, which is why ancient church buildings feel the way that they do; generations of people over hundreds of years have faithfully prayed and worshipped within them. We may just be beginning, but the more time spent praying within the space we have set aside, no matter how small, the more sacred it will feel.

Unravelling

‘Unravelling’ often has negative connotations, carrying a sense of falling apart, but it can be positive too. In fact, unravelling can be a really healthy exercise when we get to grips with the knots that shouldn’t be there, or are no longer useful.

Advent Calendars

The same thing happened last year: on the first of December I present my husband (and the children of course) with a chocolate Advent Calendar. On the second of December I am gifted not one, but two, calendars which have miraculously arrived courtesy of next day delivery: a chocolate calendar and a tea one. As I boiled the kettle and plucked the teabag from it’s ‘window’ I had a flash back to this time last year.

Erasure

Seeing my name removed from the church notice board: just a shadow remaining where the letters had spelled out not just my name by my position in the community. I was quite literally, not just metaphorically, being erased.