Vicar Ramblings – a new route through a familiar landscape
The interview went well: I got the job! From January, I will become the Vicar for the Vale Benefice, continuing to live and work here, but taking on the senior vicar role, with a new responsibility for leadership and oversight. This will be a gradual transition, as one of the Read more…
Vicar Ramblings – We can all get stuck in a rut.
We can all get stuck in a rut. Frustrated that we keep repeating the same errors. Saint Paul’s words can chime with all of us; “I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.” Romans Read more…
Vicar Ramblings: the Bible is both a library and a toolbox.
In front of me was a wall of Bibles. I needed to buy two as gifts for young people who were going to be confirmed. There was a lot of choice. Which ones to choose? Over the years I have been given Bibles to mark attending Sunday School, getting baptised, Read more…
Vicar ramblings
What is the purpose of an apple tree? I was asked this question during a recent training day on leadership and I was encouraged to reflect on how the answer relates to the way we lead. What is the purpose of leadership? The purpose of an apple tree, is to Read more…
Vicar ramblings
“Can you be kind all of the time?” The Year 2 class at St James School asked me this question recently. No, and yes, I replied. No one gets everything right all the time. We can let our mental and emotional state negatively affect others through how we talk with Read more…
Vicar Ramblings
I remember reading a Superman graphic novel (comic) with a full-page back cover image of Superman in a fight, with these words above it: Courage is not the absence of fear. That image and these words have stayed with me. But they feel like the first half of a sentence; Read more…