From the Curate - October 2017

Dear Friends

Well the last few months have been quite a whirlwind!

When people have asked me what it’s like be ordained I have described it a bit like when you get married – you put all your energy in to the wedding and then you wake up the next day and realise that you have a marriage to figure out.

Being ordained was a bit like that. I spent two years studying, preparing and training, getting ready for the incredible day when I would be ordained. It was an incredible day – it felt like the end of a long journey, that I had finally crossed the finish line and then… I got up on the Monday morning and the real work started!

It has been an immense joy to start my training as a curate amongst such welcoming, friendly congregations as those at St Mary’s and St Paul’s. When you start anything new it takes a while to learn everyone’s names, work out how things work and figure out the ‘normal’ way things happen, but everyone has been very generous and helped me feel at home.

I thought I would share with you one of my passions outside of normal church life. I love to sew to and to crochet, and very early on I decided to make my own stoles. The stole is part of the robes that I wear as a deacon. It is like my uniform, but I get to personalise it!

The church has different seasons and ‘times’, and each one has a different colour – which means different altar cloths and different stoles. At the moment we are in Ordinary Time and the colour for that is green.

You can see the stole that I made for Ordinary time on the back cover of this magazine. I chose two of my favourite ‘ordinary’ scenes – a tree and a river. These also represent the two places that I minister in – the river for Bishopstoke and the tree for Fair Oak.

I love ordinary time as it reminds us that God is faithful and constant through the ups and downs but also throughout the ordinary. So much of our lives is ordinary – getting up, having breakfast, going to work, doing the school run…

Psalm 139 reminds us that in the very ordinariness of life God is with us and never leaves us:

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.