Thursday 11 April 2013

The second week of Easter 2013

This time last week I was enjoying a few days away with my dearly beloved and refilling the physical jug after the intensity of Holy Week and Easter. I confess that it feels much longer ago! Every week, so much happens in Living Brook that somehow the illusive thing that is time has to stretch to accommodate it all, while somehow feeling that it has passed at such speed that I must have missed a day or two.

I returned to work on Sunday (having prepared everything I needed for the services over a week before). The usual Low Sunday effect prevailed at two of the churches, with turnout a little lower than usual; unfortunately some of the missing people were suffering unpleasant colds and bugs rather than enjoying their own post Easter breaks. I was pretty sniffy myself, but a pocket full of tissues was all I needed, thankfully. We were still able to celebrate the fabulous fundraising done in Lent. Our hope to raise enough money to twin one toilet in Burundi became a reality of having raised enough for four and being well on the way to five, with other private sponsorships within the parishes as well. Fantastic! At Quinton we enjoyed a church full to bulging as seven month old Ralf was brought for baptism. His big brothers did a fine job with the reading and lighting the paschal candle, and the many children in church deserved the chocolate eggs I gave out at the end, having answered a lot of questions very well in the course of the service.

Monday was when I had to start tackling the massive admin backlog and before long I knew that it was going to be impossible. Because Monday also had to include baptism preparation for two lovely primary aged children and a visit to the grieving widower of a lady whose funeral was on Wednesday. On Tuesday I began to put in place arrangements for two more funerals, and heard about a fourth, which began to be put in place today. Visits, phone calls, form filling and prayer for the funerals dominate the week, but there was also time for an excellent working meeting of the good people in Hardingstone who manage the care of the churchyard of the church, for a meeting for prayer and sharing with my nearby Baptist colleague, for a meeting with a parish councillor and parish clerk to catch up with village priorities, and to attend an annual parish meeting for the same village.

Tuesday evening was the Quinton APCM, with a turnout that was double that of the previous year. Two new members were welcomed to the PCC, which is a great delight. Quinton will soon host a daytime house group too, open to all the Benefice, a development which will bring many blessings. Somehow I couldn't manage to write the Priest in charge's letter for Hardingstone APCM until after the Quinton APCM was over, so it wasn't done until Wednesday, which must have been really maddening for poor Sally, the hero who is secretary to two of the PCC's in the Benefice.

Tonight the lovely parish next door will see a new priest in charge licensed, and so I'll be surrendering my place as the new girl on the block to another. Her arrival is exciting - she'll be an excellent successor to her excellent predecessor and I look forward to working with her and bringing our parishes closer together as partners in God's work on the southern side of Northampton.

Somehow I've managed to fill my diary for Saturday with meetings to prepare for the APCM, to work with a friend on his M Th dissertation (done with less guilt as my draft proposal is at last ready to be looked at today, having missed two deadlines) and to receive a curate bringing me a portfolio which I am looking forward to reading next week. Somehow a sermon will write itself, my daughter's clothes will be washed and packed before her return to university on Sunday and maybe, if I'm very focused, an email or two might be answered.

God's had a busy week round here, even busier in the rest of the world. What a privilege to be part of it.

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