I drove out to Llantarnam near Cwmbran today, for lunch at the Three Blackbirds pub with Rufus and Phil, two students who were in my last tutor group at St Mike's. It was an opportunity for the three of us to catch up with each other since Phil was ordained deacon and Rufus priested just a month ago in St Woolos Cathedral.
I found them in good spirits, but was amazed to hear how heavy their work loads were in their different social contexts. It's summer, and team colleagues are rightly taking time for holidays now there's someone who can cover some of their duties, but it's more than that. It's the sheer volume and variety of work to be done in larger population areas covered by fewer clergy. Nowadays nobody remains inexperienced for long.
There wasn't much time to linger over lunch. One had a funeral to take at three, the other a Eucharist to celebrate. I drove home, parked the car, and then went into the office for several hours, where there's always tasks to be completed, but fortunately at a pace we have some control over for the most part. There are urgent things to do and occasional hard deadlines, but lots of things that can be picked up and dropped ad libitum - and funnily enough, things do get done, eventually. And that's congenial.
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