Legal and Ecclesiastical

Another very busy and ecclesiastical day.  I cycled to St. John's this morning to take part in Morning Prayer where I read the second scripture from Paul's Letter to the Romans.  We were joined by Debbie and Andrew and so had a full house of clergy and trainees with the exception of Mark.  Breakfast followed where Nils posed the question "What is the Kingdom of God" - the theme for his sermon at the Mid-Week Eucharist held immediately after breakfast.  I arrived back home at around 11 a.m.  to find a list of telephone calls and emails to which I needed to respond urgently.  Amongst these was a new set of instructions for Complex to act for another large client in Surrey on an employment tribunal matter.    Additionally, we now have two other tribunals in Surrey, one in Manchester and a compromise agreement to finalise.  It's amazing where all this work has suddenly come from - and just when I am on the verge of starting my three year ministry training/foundation degree course too.  It now definitely feels that I have no longer retired - just that I now work from home in the two professions of law and church.  I briefly went into Salisbury today to pick up two NRSV study bibles from Sarum College which I am donating - one to St. John's and one to All Saints - through the grant I received from Spring Harvest.  I also popped into the fabric shop in Catherine Street to buy material and other bits and pieces to make a costume for Mary for her Romeo & Juliet school play which is being performed for the parents next week.  Whilst in there I met Ella from Winterslow baptist Church who was also buying similar material for her daughter!  This afternoon I attended a Standing Committee meeting at Mike's where we spent a couple of hours considering the future of the church leadership in Winterslow and considering people we could ask to become part of it.  I cannot take on any further roles and will probably have to stand down from some existing ones in order to concentrate on my training.  I will become more Team-orientated and less parish bound as my ministry will be spread across all ten churches in the Team and not confined just to Winterslow.  I look forward to the challenge.  Finally, tonight I attended the last LWL course session before we break for the summer.  Tonight we discussed the use of music in worship and were told that we would each have to lead a service during the summer break.  We return on the 12th October for the final session which will lead to our commissioning as Lay Worship Leaders.  By that time I will have begun my course for Licensed Ministry and so I don't know whether I shall actually be commissioned.  Exciting times ahead, both in the law and church with so much work.  I can never say I'll be bored ever again.