Through the wringer... I have never owned a wringer or a mangle, but in distant student days I did, for a while, regularly hand-wash my clothes. Why I can't quite fathom, possibly just the novelty value, combined with the time to do it. The phase didn't last long, but I do remember the experience of wringing out the towels, twisting them into contorted knots in an effort to extract as much as possible from them before putting them on the line.

This week I think I've learned how the towel must have felt!

This week GLW, LMP and myself made the journey to Small Midlands City for the familiarisation visit for the first Boojum. GLW and I got very excited on the way, planning and plotting about all the possibilities the post provided. It was a busy six hours: an awful lot to absorb, but an interesting challenge, a fantastic house, a garden of gargantuan proportions (which would have meant buying one of those tractor lawnmowers and made the chore enjoyable) and lots to think about. And that was before an evening of "speed-dating" various officers and members of the PCC to try to get a feel for the place!

We left feeling positive about it. If I'd been offered the post that evening I think we would have taken it. Only when Friday dawned did we begin to balance the picture, but not too much because I had to prepare for Boojum number 2: Nice Team Vicar Job Just Down The Road, as well as being seriously tired from arriving back in MLPK at 1230am!

So yesterday we had the interview for NTVJJDTR. And what is it about these posts? In both cases there are only two candidates, myself and an older lady... I felt that the interview went pretty well, aware of my weaknesses, but we're all human. The tour was good, although I was glad I'd had a preview visit with the Team Rector a few weeks back. The house was bigger than I remembered and GLW, LMP and LM (for she came too) all liked it. I had a chance to chat to pleny of folks over a buffet lunch with Real Sherry Trifle for afters (GLW does not approve of alcohol, so it was a rare treat!) and found myself chatting with cadidate number 2 - the pressure was off so it didn't matter. The whole experience was just, well it's a cliche, but lovely.

It was sitting in the car park that the pieces all came together. The people at NTVJJDTR were just great. The house was fine, and anyway SMC vicarage and garden were just too big to be manageable. The team at NTVJJDTR was established, the worship and churchmanship just my size, SMC was always going to be at the limits of what I could cope with. The only real drawback was that Nice Team Vicar Job Just Down The Road was just down the road and not in Small Midlands City, if only for getting to see our parents.

So decisions have been made, and where my head said one post and my heart the other (interestingly GLW had the same feelings but for the opposite places!) now heads and hearts agree. Not that I slept last night.

This morning I sent a letter (Sunday Collection 1245pm..) to Small Midlands City to withdraw from the application process. In ten years or so, SMC could well be the right post, but not now - for either of us. Too much is at stake and we have to get this right. I hope the folks there understand, but they wanted to get it right, and I wouldn't be, the worship would not sustain me and the job was just too big.

And Nice Team Vicar Job Just Down The Road? I don't know. We're hoping and praying that we are offered it, and there's no hiding the fact that we'll be disappointed if we aren't, but the past few days have clarified the way ahead: If not NTVJJDTR, them something like it. Not SMC. We will not lose sleep agonising over "what ifs."

Although it really might be time to fill in the application form for North Midlands Team Vicar... anything to avoid mowing the lawn (shame about not getting a tractor lawnmower though!)

So Neighbouring Archdeacon, if you're reading this, give me a call. Please.

Labels: Faith, Life

  ¶ 10:54 am