On May 1st, I will set my Out-of-Office and answer-machine, press the Pause button on my parish life, and step into a 3-month sabbatical. It will feel strange. “We’ve got rid of the vicar for 3 months!” you may think.
In the summer of 2006 I stepped into a Waterstones bookshop in Brighton. We were holidaying in Sussex. My eyes were drawn to a vividly pink book, engagingly titled “Everything Bad is Good for You”. It was a wonderfully positive book about contemporary media culture, and reading it reawakened something in me, a fresh love for life and people and questions. It was the first of a number of sparks that ignited, a year later, stepping out of the familiar stability of Met Office life onto our clergy journey.
In the 15 years since, our family has grown up and moved out, we’ve traversed Devon, we’ve planted in several vicarage gardens. We’ve known, loved, and inevitably lost people as we’ve moved. We’ve grown older (it doesn’t always feel wiser!); I’ll mindfully be within 6 months of my 60th on my return (how did that happen?).
Clergy are encouraged to take a sabbatical. Someone recommended having three words to express what you hope to draw from it. My current favourite three are ‘Relax, Explore, Sing’ – all rather intuitive and imprecise. ‘Relax’ is the obvious one – even if it’s not easy to truly slow down! A golden chance to catch up on rest (it’s a ‘sabbath’). A chance for Dawn and me to catch up with each other.
‘Explore’? I’m no intrepid adventurer! But I love exploring new places, history, people and experiences, finding these both refreshing and stimulating. Much UK travel is planned, especially around our wonderful coast. It may include Sussex; it will include dangerous bookshops. And ‘Sing’?? – the vaguest of them all! I use the word metaphorically (though who knows). What are the ‘songs of the times’? of this land? of my heart? of God? It’s a time without the usual hyper-buzz, to tune in and hopefully listen.
Parish needs and business will be in good hands: the churchwardens, the many teams and individuals who form our churches’ sustaining fabric, the wider Ottery team with Lydia as Team Rector, and you all. ‘Rectory Notes’ will be ‘Rectory-ish Notes’, courtesy of three wise guest contributors.
On Aug 1st the Pause button will be released. Only it won’t really have been a pause. For water will have flowed under your bridges, and under mine. So in the meantime, in everything, God bless.
