I'm not doing much preaching these days....my services tend to be communions for small numbers of people...and of late these have tailed off too. Our curate newly priested wants to do everything...for which we can only be grateful.
In my position of of assistant priest I am not in charge of anything thank goodness.
This suits me.
It gives me time to write, to blog and to play daft games.
I have though recently been asked to renew my permission to officiate, granted by the bishop. And I've been wondering whether or not it's time to retire.
I've retired once from teaching eons ago....but then a new path opened up before me.
I have been very happy living in Cornwall, doing the job I had always wished for in my old age. So is it time to let go?
I really have no answer to that yet......our priest in charge retires next summer, there may well be a gap before someone new arrives and in the past I kept it all going with the help of my husband, the church warden.
I'm too old now. One service on Sunday is all I can manage....more makes me very tired.
So before I fill in the required form to keep me working I need a period of quiet reflection. I would still do some pastoral visiting of course but maybe it's time to stop the rest.
But I can't help wondering if maybe it is this busyness which keeps me going...always having something to do , people to see, meetings to avoid....letters to write...
I need to ask God....
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4 comments:
I feel it's having a purpose in lifeJean. I watched the Panorama programme with Joan Bakewell. They all had a purpose in life.
I don't....... I sometimes seem to be marking time.
My daughter is on my case and for the first time in my life I am waiting for a doggie companion. A rescue dog! Do you know they will take them back at any time should I pop off to meet my maker.
For 57 years we were two, I need to be two again .
I think that you should renew your PTO. While you might be tired out, surely the service to others that you provide is something they cherish, so being available for the occasional service will keep you going.
And, the closing of that door, might well lead to a feeling of not being used and something of resentment. I know that my license is to be renewed in may, after the first year of probation. But I'm now 68, so will be on PTO after 70. Will I continue -yes, because I'm still a bit shiny and new to Ministry, and the call remains clear and steady. The advantage of PTO is being licensed to the Deanery, not an individual parish, meaning that I can officiate by invitation, wider than my present role, which is to Parish and Community Work, within the Deanery.
Wow well done Babs.....you will enjoy having a dog....
As you are one of the few people who can remember my appalling springer William you know that I am without one just now but I want to be free to travel... who knows how I will feel in the future. U
I am already searching for good kennels, like you I love my holidays, although the need might not be as great as it is now.
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