Visiting

I spent the majority of my adult life from age 17 to age 60 serving in Uniform as a member of the Army. I am often asked about service life and am always happy to explain it, as I experienced it.

I was asked to visit someone to speak to their Grandson about service life, with a view to his understanding more about Army life in general, and the Territorial Army in particular. My later service was with the TA, where I had responsibility for recruiting. I met the young man at the house, and spent a pleasant hour providing information on the TA to him. I gave him an idea of his particular options to maximise the use of his existing skills within the framework. We also spoke about the options for him to move to the Regular Army in due course, if that was his longer term aspiration.

Afterwards, I was asked by his Grandmother to stay for a chat. The chat turned into perhaps what might be considered a pastoral visit. It involved me listening a great deal to what was being said, responding when questions were asked, with those answers I felt able to give, and promising to follow up those that I could not answer. We were then joined by her son, who talked to me at some length, finishing with the statement that he was considering being confirmed. He is 49, and thought that it was about time he made some commitment. I was able to assure him that it was a positive thing to do and to point him towards our next series of Confirmation classes starting later this year.

All in all, this was a meaningful session. What had started out with my visit to help the grandson, turned out to be to provide a listening ear for some of their concerns. I leanred that sometimes, what appears on the surface, might well actually be a sign of a deeper need, for a listening ear. It was good that during our conversations, they were able to provide their own solutions to the things discussed, just airing them with someone from outside the family seemed to be the solution.

On reflection, I can also see that I drew something from this. The fact that they felt that they knew me well enough to trust me and to be open and to share some of their history and worries, seems to me to be affirming and to provide some acceptance of my role in lay ministry within the parish.

God is the God of providence, placing people in places and positions where they might be able to support others in need - in this case the need appears to be two-way, for the family I spoke to and to help my own journey towards discernment.

And an additional outcome - an invitation to be a guest speaker on Army Life and my journey to a small group in May. The Army saying is 'never volunteer for anything', it seems to me that God volunteers you without any help from anyone else.

Lent Course

I am taking part in a Lent Course again this year. It is part of the excitement that I always feel at the start of Lent, something I cannot explain, but it just seems to re-envigorate me in so many ways.

The course is on discipleship, which is a theme throughout my diocese this year, and the resources provided are excellent, and well presented and used by the Vicar and Curate who are running the course.

I have already shared with and learned so much from the other participants, but considering we are a five parish benefice with over 360 on Registers, I am wondering why more are not taking part.

Reflecting on those I see and meet regularly while visiting the various churches in the benefice, I seem to be missing some, I anticipated would be there, but have been pleasantly surprised to meet others that I did not know, or had not met, who are here. Establishing relationships of friendship as people relaxed a little and let down their guards is a fulfilling experience, and somehow the new relationships being built by our shared experience just seem to be ones that I will come to value more and more in the future.

The eye opener always for me is when people share part of their journey, which are inspirational, particularly as they describe how they have come to where they are now. Reasons for attending varied, but a common theme seemed to be, that they felt pulled or called to attend. God working within them and through others to bring a disparate group together in friendship,community, worship, study and prayer. Now for me, that is what being a Christian is about.

I am looking forward to the next three weeks, and the build up towards Holy Week, this time I will for the first time be attending the Chrism Mass in Canterbury Cathedral - and I look forward to that enormously.

Another bonus of the Lent Course has meant that I am in Canterbury early enough to attend Evensong in the Cathedral - letting the words and song flow in and through me. Wonderful worship.

Another DDO meeting

I haven't posted here for some time, so perhaps a brief update is deserved. I have continued on the journey, working as directed by the DDO and both he and I can sense progress in terms of growth as a Christian and an expansion of my engagement with wider issues which effect the church today.

I had my 11th meeting with the DDO on Monday. The meeting was positive and went very well indeed. We seem to be at the stage of engaging much more on deeper beliefs and understanding, particularly on areas which impact on the nine criteria for Ordained ministry.

I have produced the written work requested as well as some additional reflections on things, which might have been to much, but which drew the wry comment that future meetings would need one hour for the face to face and another two hours to read the output. Very tongue in cheek.

I found myself sharing stuff, which I had thought about and reflected on. I also asked some questions about areas which I wanted more information on, particularly other roles for NSM within the diocese - not just assistant priest in a parish. I got the answer that I expected - that given my age, those roles were very restricted, but we could explore them post-curacy (if I get that far).

An observation from the DDO which pleased me was that he could see some real development and expansion from my engaging with topics about the wider church, its problems and issues and had taken the time to reflect on them. He said that some of this could be attributed to my engagement with the internet and other Christian Blogger's. It will prove useful when answering questions, if I go forward for the Diocesan Panel and National Selection.

I have been given a copy of the Bishops report on Human Sexuality, which I need to read and provide a written reflection on for next month. I have also received a copy of the full report prepared for the Anglican Communion, which might prove to be of help in this reflection.

So another step in the process, which I am now, really enjoying - this thing that comes to mind is that whatever the outcome, this has been a worthwhile journey of growth, of maturing as a Christian and an inspiration to share so much with an excellent priest, who is mentoring me in preparation to face the Diocesan Panel.

I say it a lot, But God is Really, Really, Great! :votive1: