" ... as one who serves."

I celebrated the Eucharist at St John's this morning as the priest who's there regularly on Thursdays for the time being was away. It's the first time I've been asked to stand in since I retired. It was good to learn that weekday and Sunday attendances are being maintained in the absence of a new incumbent. Old fashioned clerical protocol dictates that the retiring incumbent should keep clear for a couple of years and not interfere in affairs or compete with his successor for the loyalties of parishioners. And there are all sorts of worst case stories told about retired former Vicars being a nuisance and making life difficult for the one who has to shoulder pastoral responsibilities after they've gone. 

To my mind this presumes that all clerics have problems about establishing or relinquishing status and power. It has nothing to do with ministry or the Gospel of Him who set his disciples the example of humble service. As far as I'm concerned the only thing necessary is to ask either the congregation, or the new incumbent when appointed, if I can help in any way, and keep out of range if the answer is 'no'. There's no need to experience this as rejection. What I learned from the experience of working for USPG, was that the authentic missionary serves the flourishing of the church by working themselves out of a job, so that they need to move on. That's actually how I feel about retiring when I did.

Having said that, I did ask if I could celebrate the Parish Eucharist this coming Sunday, as it's the fortieth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. It was something I needed to think through before asking. At one level I'm not too comfortable with a priest drawing attention to themselves when they are by virtue of office figures who attract public attention. Some love attention, some need it, but what purpose does it serve in my life? The passing of years has shown me that many more remember birthdays than recall ordination or more importantly baptism dates, even among close family. But what I felt I'd like to share with others on this occasion was my heartfelt appreciation of all those (now mostly long dead) whose prayers, influence and encouragement guided me to priesthood as a way of life. So this is my personal Litany of the Saints, offered in thankful remembrance for all that enabled me to believe a life of ministerial service was possible at all.

I scribed for the Street Carers representative group meeting this evening at TAVs, in Roath, an old Gospel Hall which has been adapted to serve homeless rough sleepers and vulnerable people, as a place where they can sit down to a meal, take shower, get some new clothes and find someone to listen to their concerns and pray with them if needs be. It's an admirable working model of a vision of pastoral and practical care for the poorest of the poor, developed by people at Highfields Church further up in Roath. We could do with a couple more of these around the periphery of the city centre. 

One of the things we started to discuss is the re-location of the existing mobile feeding station in Charles Street outside M&S, to forestall more hassles with security staff resulting from a few mis-behaving street people. It will only get worse when the adaptation of the vacated Ebeneser church building into two new prestigious restaurants is completed.  Such a shame nobody would consider  allowing one of them to be acquired as another permanent off-street feeding station for street people. At least I was able to hand over a cheque to the new Street Carers Forum fund  from the diverted giving campaign back 2007, stewarded by Cardiff Business Safe. This will help with training to help Street Carers to improve their standards and confidence in the great work they do.