End of term!

So we've come to the end of Hilary Term - one third of the way through my training already! This has been a ridiculously busy term, with lots of essays, supporting pieces, formational stuff and more! Some of the highlights:

Worship

Working with members of my College Group to put together a Creative Eucharist was an excellent experience. We had some differences of opinion during the process - inevitable when the group is full of leaders - but it was a valuable learning experience and resulted in a service which flowed very smoothly and enabled a lot of people to meet with God.

Another highlight happened two days later, when a member of our group (not me!) performed some highly entertaining tricks with a thurible during the service commemorating Edward King, a principal of Cuddesdon over 100 years ago.

Placements

Both placements this term have been good, especially the opportunity to preach at St. Barnabas. I will also be acolyting there on Easter Sunday, which will be exciting! The Steppin Stone placement is nearly at an end - one Thursday to go - and I will be sorry to finish there. It has been so important in keeping my training grounded in the realities of ministry.

Studies

Best course of the term has been Reformation - a huge gap in my knowledge up until now, but not any more! I have two supporting pieces to do on this over the holiday - have already started the first one, on the reason Erasmus & Luther disagreed over free will. Fascinating stuff!

College Life

I am officially part of the new Kids Church Leadership Team - a colleague and I led the last one of term Wednesday just gone. It is nice to be back involved with this!

I am also continuing as Assistant Social Club Treasurer for the next year - the guy who gets to tell everyone how much they've been spending at the bar!

Easter Holidays

We're going to be back and forth over the holidays, with me having the two essays to write, as well as revision for exams (first week in May). But there is a wedding at St. Mark's to look forward to, as well as experiencing how St. Barnabas 'do Holy Week'. And we will be visiting family at various times as well. Then it will be back for a new term, and getting ready to say goodbye to those who will be leaving college in June - which will signal one year left for us here!

Faith and Work

Despite the relentless snowy weather - which is making it very difficult to get in and out of Cuddesdon - the new term is underway with a Themed Study Week. Unlike the week which ended last term, this week has a variety of options for us to choose from; I am doing a week on Faith & Work.

I asked to do this because there are so many aspects to this course which are relevant to future parish ministry. Surveys are regularly conducted which show that many Christians struggle to make connections between their faith and daily life, and received little help from their local church in this area. And yet, for those in our congregations who do work, they will on the whole be spending more waking time at work than at home in a typical week. And so I believe that this has to be a key area in which the parish priest supports the congregation in his or her care. There are also, of course, issues around unemployment, retirement, etc.

So far this week, we have had some introductory thoughts, followed by a trip to one of the big Investment Banks in Canary Wharf yesterday. We met a number of key personnel - some of whom are Christians and some of whom are not - along with the Chaplain to Canary Wharf. It was a very interesting day, particularly in understanding more about the banking industry, the pressures that people who work in that atmosphere have to deal with, and in visiting the homogeneous, impersonal trading floor.

Then today we have been doing some theological reflection on our time there. Still to come, we will be looking at how Christian Theology of Work has developed over the years, and then thinking about specific ways in which pastors can support Christians at work.

It would have been nice to visit somewhere very different as well - banking, of course, is very different to healthcare, which is different to education, which is different to manufacturing, etc - but this week has been excellent so far. And it has been a great way to kick off the new term, before going back into the normal timetable next week.