Back in Salisbury today. The weather was drizzling this morning but soon brightened up and we had warm sunshine for the rest of the day. Tom needed to take a letter into school to confirm that he would be taking Tuesday off to be with his Grandpa and also one week after his half-term holiday for the trip to the Bahamas. Typical Tom, he rushed off for the school bus without the letter. Fortunately I was a able to drive up to the bus stop with his letter - and also his dinner money - before the bus left. My day at work was fairly uneventful with meetings and paperwork. On my way home I stopped off at Waitrose and bought a couple of bottles of recommended Spanish red wine and some seafood for our Spanish paella evening meal with David and Andrea tomorrow. Tonight I attended my first Deanery Synod meeting at Downton and took Mike M-J, the treasurer, with me. Before leaving, I showed Sara how to operate the power mower so that she could tidy up the back lawn which had grown since I cut it at the weekend. In fact, in showing her I cut most of the lawn myself! We are both anxious that the house and garden look good for her Dad's visit tomorrow. The Synod meeting was surprisingly enjoyable. We started with a full Eucharist, then coffee followed by the meeting proper. This included a report from General Synod and the issue of women bishops and then a discussion on the allocation of the parish share in the context of the teams having only one and half stipendiary priests each. There was then a short presentation by Sara B (not my Sara!) on her work as a Lay Pastoral Assistant and finally a short talk by the Rural Dean on the "Back to Church" initiative which the Church of England is promoting to get people to come to church within a more welcoming environment. The talk was quite inspirational. On returning home, Sara printed out her Questions for her party. Tomorrow is going to be quite a landmark day with our first meeting with her Dad and Andrea since our awful visit to them in the USA in 1998. I have just realised - we haven't seen them this century!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
My first Deanery Synod meeting
Back in Salisbury today. The weather was drizzling this morning but soon brightened up and we had warm sunshine for the rest of the day. Tom needed to take a letter into school to confirm that he would be taking Tuesday off to be with his Grandpa and also one week after his half-term holiday for the trip to the Bahamas. Typical Tom, he rushed off for the school bus without the letter. Fortunately I was a able to drive up to the bus stop with his letter - and also his dinner money - before the bus left. My day at work was fairly uneventful with meetings and paperwork. On my way home I stopped off at Waitrose and bought a couple of bottles of recommended Spanish red wine and some seafood for our Spanish paella evening meal with David and Andrea tomorrow. Tonight I attended my first Deanery Synod meeting at Downton and took Mike M-J, the treasurer, with me. Before leaving, I showed Sara how to operate the power mower so that she could tidy up the back lawn which had grown since I cut it at the weekend. In fact, in showing her I cut most of the lawn myself! We are both anxious that the house and garden look good for her Dad's visit tomorrow. The Synod meeting was surprisingly enjoyable. We started with a full Eucharist, then coffee followed by the meeting proper. This included a report from General Synod and the issue of women bishops and then a discussion on the allocation of the parish share in the context of the teams having only one and half stipendiary priests each. There was then a short presentation by Sara B (not my Sara!) on her work as a Lay Pastoral Assistant and finally a short talk by the Rural Dean on the "Back to Church" initiative which the Church of England is promoting to get people to come to church within a more welcoming environment. The talk was quite inspirational. On returning home, Sara printed out her Questions for her party. Tomorrow is going to be quite a landmark day with our first meeting with her Dad and Andrea since our awful visit to them in the USA in 1998. I have just realised - we haven't seen them this century!
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