Another busy day today. Sara took Thom into Stockbridge to catch his bus as Thom starts later today. I did a little bit of gardening in the morning whilst it was dry and bright and then cycled to the Rectory for my monthly meeting with Nils, my training incumbent. We had a very long and intense meeting this morning discussing the Team's dynamics, my future ministerial role within the Team and in particularly issues of an ontological nature (the study of "being" as opposed to simply "functioning"). Many, including quite a number of Lay ministers themselves, see their role as a functioning role whereas with proper ministerial formation which should be ontologically changed. I'll let my reader look up the word for a much better description than I can give it! Whilst in my two-hour meeting it started to rain really heavily and, thankfully, Nils lent to a rain jacket for my cycle ride back home. This afternoon I met up with Nils again at a meeting of the Team's Greater Chapter at the home of one of our retired lay ministers. This is an opportunity for those ministers (ordained and lay) who are not part of the main Ministerial Team to have an input into the life of Clarendon's ministry. This evening I led our house group but instead of following the advertised programme the five of us present chatted about differences between the established and orthodox churches and the free and non-conformist churches. This discussion arose out of my description of the form of service to be expected at my admission and licensing next week. It appears that an understanding of the rituals within Anglican services is still well beyond many church goers and perhaps part of my ministry is to try and explain that in the context of spiritual and biblical thoughts and writings.
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