The leaving do

I've just been to my leaving do and survived.

To get leaving events right (assuming you are allowed a say in it) is a matter of experience and judgement. I had one once where there was a big garden party on the Saturday afternoon. The trouble was, everyone put the maximum effort in to make it work, and the two services on the Sunday had a terrible air of anticlimax as a result. Given that it was Pentecost Sunday, that was unfortunate in the extreme.

This time we did things differently. Everything was concentrated into one day. There was a service in the morning and a tea in the afternoon followed by a short act of worship. The mix worked. I had liberty of the Spirit in preaching and the day had a positive atmosphere.

And now? After a short spell of annual leave, I move into the position of being in between churches. That's my euphemism for pastoral unemployment. An unemployed actor is "resting"; an unemployed pastor is "in between churches". May that interval be short. At the same time, God in His wisdom will surely not supply a new pastorate until I am again ready to cope with one.