Six monthly audit and lots of faith, hope and love.

I can't believe we have been here for six months! Our life was upturned and redirected in February, when we moved to this small rural village and my husband began his first incumbancy as the rector of six rural churches. I can't believe how different one English county can be from another. Here we are surrounded by thatched cottages and vast fields of crops. Despite living in the countryside before, never has the onset of harvest been so obvious to me. We are surrounded by acres of wheat and barley that stretch as far as the eyes can see. Now, after a short, intense sunny spell, the tractors seem to be working continuously to bring the crops in. The thundering tractors race through the village from dawn until midnight (- when they are actually obliged to stop). As you look over towards the farms, it looks like there is a dust storm rising out of the fields - centred on a huge harvester monster that continuously crawls up and down the field. And so the crops will be brought in and the circle of ploughing and planting will start again.

The Rector has now had six months to listen and watch the six churches in action. When he came here, he promised to make no changes and to get to know the people and parishes in his first six months. This has required patience from those folk who wanted things to change or move on, or were worried that the new rector was going to shake up the familiar. It has been a great time for us as we have tried to attend most village events and the Rector@6 has tried to attend most parish meetings. It has also been a very busy and tiring time!


Often in August, being the school holidays, many church groups take a break so the Rector@6 decided that this was a good time to run a short course to get to know people on a different level. He advertised the York course 'Faith, Hope and Love' - to run in the Rectory garden with a bring and share supper. It has been a great opportunity to listen to people and where they are in their churchmanship, their faith journey and their relationship with the parish church. The Rector@6 would thoroughly recommend this course to other ministers starting out somewhere new. It has proved to be very popular - so much so -  that we have had to run it in two sessions, either with lunch or supper. It has made for a very busy August hence the lack of blogging on my part!

I am settling down into a routine of helping with and riding the big horses over in the next village. This is my escape from parish life, as they are outside the Rector@6's parishes. And I need it! We seem to eat, sleep and talk church in the Rectory. This settling-in period seems such an intense time but then that is the same with any new job - but I am not employed in this job - I just live in it!
 

Walk, talk, pray and sermon writing

Last Saturday a hardy group of parishioners took to walking a valley walk around our six churches - a total of 11 miles in all. I'm not sure why this was started ten years ago - maybe as a prayer walk or a spin off from 'beating the bounds', but as it was, we were blessed with glorious weather and a great day out. Over thirty people walked the whole walk (the Rector@6 and myself included) and this rose to over fifty people if you included those who completed parts of the walk. Some were sponsored and were raising money for a chosen charity and others were just walking and enjoying the countryside and fellowship. There was time for prayer and a reflection in each church - each with a different topic and some with tea, coffee and cake (Dorset does very good homemade cakes). It was a great opportunity to get to know people from the different parishes and for the Rector@6 to get ideas for his sermon the next day (which he had not completed!).

Sermon writing in our house can be a bit like blogging production in our household - sometimes they just roll out with ease and other times I know the Rector@6 is struggling because he doesn't sleep well and keeps disappearing into his study - even on his DAY OFF! Occasionally we have a week of chewing over a particular text at the supper table. On other occasions, my experience as a time served teacher comes in useful for testing out or inspiring more child friendly talks. I still have a drawer of 'useful objects' that teachers tend to hoard - just in case!  The sermon for the day after the valley walk (Pentecost Sunday) was one of those occasions when my hoard of yellow stretchy men came in handy. The stretchy men were handed out to everyone who attended the joint churches' service. It was quite amusing to see the reactions and questioning look as each person was given a hymnbook, service sheets and a stretchy man. The Rector@6 was obviously inspired by the aches and pains he was feeling from the walk - because he talked about being stretched and re-shaped by the God - a subject close to my heart!

The early birds at the first church

Tess was not very well behaved in church!

We reached the last church in time for a lovely tea. It had been a super walk and the Rector@6 and I feel we are beginning to know where we are!

It was such a lovely day that we didn't want it to end - so the Rector@6 and I decided to walk the two and a half miles home, passed thatched cottages, through the scented bluebell woods and out into the vibrant yellow fields. What a day.......what surroundings!