A day in the life of a curate 3

I have been asked to explain what priests do on Monday to Saturday, and so I am dipping into random days to answer the question. Yesterday, the main events were a coffee morning, lunch with the pastoral team, a series of phone calls working on a green project I am involved in, and a home group in the evening:

Coffee Morning - this is open to the community every Thursday in the Brill URC. It is run by church volunteers and provides a great opportunity for people to meet and chat. There is a lot of laughter too. It is mainly retired people who come along. From the church's viewpoint it gives us a chance to serve the community and also to get to know people so that if they are unwell we can be aware and call in.

Lunch with the pastoral Team. The people who serve on this team run the coffee mornings in Brill, Ludgershall and Ashendon and visit those in the community who are unwell. They are a group who all have the gift of encouraging, every one of them has shown me immense kindness and support and they would be the first people to drop in on if I was feeling low.

Green Project. I am a great believer in saving the planet and have a few ideas up my sleeve.. more on this at some other time.

Home Group. It was the Ludgershall Home Group last night. I love it. We discussed the Great Commission:

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

What I love about it is that we are able to discuss things and be very real, it is refreshing to be in a place that  supportive and honest, where everyone's views are respected. I love praying in that group too.

In amongst that was some emailing, and on reflection I realised that the most wonderful part of my job is I regularly see acts of kindness and immense generosity, between others and towards me. Here is a letter I received yesterday:

Dear Lesley

I do hope I can call you that for I feel as if I have known you for a long time.
However, I specially wanted to thank you again for the gentle and lovely way you conducted my daughter's funeral. It was also good to see you later but I was worried about you getting home safely.
I do hope you will find what you are looking for in life and that you will be happy.
Take good care of yourself - I shall remember you fondly.

x x

I often think I have the best job in the world.

Visiting - what is it all about?

People expect the Vicar to do visiting - but why? Some say that people don't think that the 'church' cares unless the Vicar has stopped by. I heard of a story where a priest came to an older lady's house and was let in by one of his congregation who had been visiting and was just leaving. The first thing the older lady said on seeing the priest was 'Oh, it's about time you came, I've been ill and no one from the church has come'.

Today, we have a lunch for the Pastoral Team - those lay people who visit the sick and put on coffee mornings for the community. We will be discussing the purpose of visiting. I think for me it is threefold:

1. Friendship. Or should I call this discipleship? When I visit someone I hope that we will encourage each other to follow Christ in ever deeper ways. That the visit will change both of us. I actually think this can be true whether or not the person I visit is a Christian, we can grow in love, truth, hope and joy.

2. Encouragement. If someone is sick or housebound then perhaps they need a little encouragement to go on, to keep praying and to not sink into despondency. It is amazing the power of affirmation, as I wrote in my post here.

3. An excuse to show love. I think it is quite hard to find an excuse to show you care. When someone is sick it is great to visit, exchange hospitality, have a chat and spread a little happiness.

I don't think it it matters at all whether one is wearing a dog collar or not, and I don't think we should give in to other people's expectations about that, we should be ourselves and be true to what we feel we are called to do, see my post here.