Prospective fatherhood

Well, this is it! If nothing happens in the next 24 hours, Clare will be off to the hospital tomorrow afternoon to begin the induction process. In less than 48 hours, baby will be here, and we will be parents!

Of all the things that have happened in my life over 37 years, this is both the most exciting and the most daunting. Becoming parents is something we've longed for for so long, and now it is almost here, I am literally giddy with anticipation and a huge sense of responsibility. The awesomeness of what is about to happen is hitting us both - and, whilst we cannot wait to meet our little miracle, we're very aware that we are about to embark on a huge adventure which we feel pretty unprepared for! The antenatal classes have been great - but that was all theory - we're about to find out that babies don't follow any standard pattern!

Keep an eye open for pictures on the blog! They should be here in a few days!

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.

The waiting time

The last few days have been kind of strange. I feel very much in an 'in-between' time.

With all the work done, including tweaking the essays after tutor comments, I now feel as ready as I'll ever be for baby's arrival. But baby isn't here yet! And, with Clare showing no signs of going into labour whatsoever, I'll be surprised if baby does make an appearance on the due date (Thursday).

So it's a time of waiting. A time for patience. And a time to enjoy being a couple while we have the chance!

Work done, baby imminent!

Phew! Time to end the silence of the last few months, as today I finished my second Long Essay, just in time for baby's arrival!

The last few weeks have been pretty much full of activity either baby or essay related! We've been getting the nursery ready and going to antenatal classes, as well as the regular trips to see the midwife and consultant. Clare is now less than a week from her due date (9th September), and looking very good! At the last midwife appointment (Tuesday), we found out that baby was 3/5 engaged, so things really could happen at any moment!

As I mentioned above, both Long Essays are done. They will need a little tweaking, once the tutors have cast their eye over them, but I feel good enough about them that I could hand them in as they are, if necessary. As with the exams, I'm not expecting to get a First for either of them; as long as they are good enough to pass, that's the important thing. More importantly, the reading and writing of them has where the real learning has been for me.

There are 3 weeks until term begins now, so, assuming baby arrives on time, we will have a couple of weeks together before I get back into college life. It's kind of weird being a 2nd year, meeting all the new arrivals, but fun too!

Update for the last two months

So, the last time I got round to updating this, I was talking about the exams I was sitting. That seems a long time ago! The results came out recently, and I was very pleased to achieve what I hoped for - a pair of 2:1 results. (Actual scores were 66% in OT and 68% in NT).

Since the exams, there have been lots of other things happening, as you'd expect! Rest of term was a mixture of Themed Study Weeks (one on Death, Dying & Bereavement and one on Communication), as well as a number of one-off days on various other topics, including race awareness and healing/the paranormal. Alongside that, I have been working on my long essays, which I want to have done by the end of August.

Not much time for them at the moment, though, as I have been on placement for the last three weeks. I am at Dorchester Abbey, just down the road from Cuddesdon, and I asked to go there to get experience of what it is like in a team ministry. Dorchester is one parish within a benefice of many (mostly village communities), with a team of 3 stipendiary clergy, 2 curates and many other licensed ministers (some clergy, some lay). It has been a fascinating experience of seeing how a multi-parish benefice works - now I just have to write it up!

And one other thing has happened - we've moved! Although we have really enjoyed being in the cottage, it simply wasn't big enough for the imminent arrival of baby Routledge (less than 2 months to go!) So we are now in one of the 2-bedroom flats on-site - which feels very spacious after the cosiness of the cottage!

NT Exam

With this morning's effort out of the way, the exams are over, so I can concentrate on getting the other essays done, as well as continuing to be formed for the priesthood!

Today's exam was much the same as yesterday in format, although it did include some Greek translation, which went fine, thankfully! Essay topics were the christology of Matthew's Gospel and the contribution that the social sciences make to interpreting 1 Corinthians. Both fascinating subjects!

No more work today - need a bit of a rest after all the revision, so it was nice to head to the pub for lunch with fellow ordinands! Also looking forward to the Eucharist this evening.

OT Exam today

I had the first of my two exams this morning: 3 hours on the Old Testament.

Went reasonably well, I think, but am so glad I did the mock last week! It helped me to get my timings right, so I was able to pace myself pretty much perfectly, with 5 minutes at the end to go back and finish an earlier question!

There were 4 'gobbets' in the exam (short passages of scripture which have to be commented on - with regards to history, literary and theological insights). I did the two from Genesis and two from Second Isaiah.

The two essays were interesting - not quite as expected, but fairly easy to adapt the mock essays to. One was on whether or not it is adequate to describe Genesis 1-11 as "monotheistic myth", in its Ancient Near East context - an opportunity to talk about things like the Creation and Flood narratives in comparison with those in (for example) the Mesopotamian narratives of Atrahasis & Gilgamesh.
The other essay was about the 'servant' figure in Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55), and whether or not the fact that he is 'anonymous' is significant.

As I say, it went fairly well on the whole - I'm sure I've passed, at any rate, which is all I need to do.

Time now to replace the OT theology with NT, ready for exam 2 tomorrow morning!