September - Go! Go! Go!

August was a bit of a slack period - Sally allowed me total freedom in setting my holidays this year, with the result that I was away whenshe was here and vice-versa. We didn't see each other for a whole month, and Lacock's congregation saw us both on alternate Sundays.

Church activities generally go very quiet in August anyway, so when I wasn't actually working there was plenty of time to keep things ticking over (i.e. preparing for 'next Sunday') and to start to think about September.

And looking back, what a busy month September has been compared to July and August. That's partly because some new stuff has kicked off, and partly because things were already slowing down for summer when the newly-ordained arrived in parishes in July. And here it's a busy team of country parishes, so it's frantic just trying to keep up with what is happening, never mind taking part in some of it. At the same time I'm working out what it means to be a curate. what people's expectations are of me, and how the different contexts I'm in have different expectations of me....

One of the new things that has been started is 'Messy Club', in partnership with Lacock primary school - it's an after-school club that uses messy (paint, glue, water, if it's sticky we use it!) activities to explore a theme. Some talented ladies work out the activities, I turn up to help and draw it together at the end with a few minutes of explaining the relationship to the theme. We're working our way through the creation story - week by week we're taking the six days of creation and we'll have a day of rest in half-term! So far we've done Light and Dark, Water, and Land. And I've already learnt one of those details that had skipped my attention so far - that Water and Land were created at separate times...so what was under the water then?

It's straight away the largest club in the school (by a factor of 3!) and is great fun. It's effectively bringing Sunday School to the people instead of waiting for them to come to us.

So Mondays are fully accounted for. Typically I meet Sally for prayers and a staff meeting just after 9am - she likes the fact that there is now staff that she can have a meeting with! After that I'll look at what Messy Club are doing today, and prepare my input for that It's not ideal to be preparing this close to the event, but it's the reality at the moment. Lunch will be followed by Scuffs - our weekly toddler service, where I'm making a few small friends, and immediately after that it's Messy Club. If I'm lucky there is nothing further, because I'll already be exhausted. If I'm unlucky there will be a PCC (Parochial Church Council) meeting to attend - which demands alertness and sensitivity which may not be present by this part of the day.

Actually, Mondays seems to be the only day on which there is some standard routine. Which is good - the rest of the week needs to be flexible. And the fact it's so tiring means that I appreciate my Tuesday Day Off more!