Leavers' Course

The Leavers' Course started today, and suddenly it's starting to hit me that we finish in less than 3 weeks! I've always known this, but with things like exams and Themed Study Weeks to think about, it's been something that's there but not totally on the radar. But now there's nothing else to focus on!

There's lots of different things happening. We will have some spiritual and theological input, as well as practical things like Child Protection (not that I've done any of that before!) and Canon Law. Today we began by thinking about 'desert island theology' - basically what might sustain us during curacy. One thing we were asked to do was to think of three books that we would have on a desert island; my three were:

Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense (Vanstone) - a remarkable book about God and authentic love
Restoring the Woven Chord (Mitton) - a book about Celtic spirituality
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) - my all-time favourite novel!

Martyn (the principal) gave us a long list of books which sustain him - I have read a grand total of one of them! But that does mean I have a lot of suggestions of things to read in the future!

Curacy!

We're still waiting for this baby to decide that he/she wants to leave the comfort of the womb, so in the meantime, how about some curacy news?

The news is that we know where we will be going next year! It has been announced in the parish, so I am now free to tell people: I will be curate in the Ebbsfleet Team Ministry, which is the parishes of Northfleet & Rosherville.

Clare & I went to visit a few weeks ago, and met the Team Rector and a few people from the churches and community. Lawrence (the Rector) seems like he will be a great colleague to work with, and the community, whilst fairly needy in places, has a good feel to it. The day we visited was a fun day organised by and for a particular street, with the church being involved, and there was a great atmosphere about the place. Everyone we met was enthusiastic about the possibility of us going there, which was nice and affirming! We will be making another visit at some point this autumn.

With everything else happening, it is really good to know where we will be going next year. There are details to be sorted out, of course, but it leaves me free to focus on the new college year, as well as being a dad, without having to take lots of trips back to Rochester Diocese.

There's only a few of us who are leaving next year who have our curacies sorted, so please pray for everyone who is still looking, especially those who are being released by their sending Dioceses.