A Day of Firsts

Saturday 29th
Today was a busy day. I worked at my desk in the morning, in another vain effort to clear my in tray...

At noon I popped across to St Mary's Shenley where I watched Liz Baker take her first wedding. She did very well and managed to appear calm, relaxed and there for the couple - which is most of the work really...

It was useful to be there, simply to observe, but also to double check the legal bits... and I can confirm that her first wedding was fully legal - so that's the rest of the job done...

Well done Liz!

I popped home for a bite of lunch before heading off to Woughton for the Licensing of Cathi Williams. It was one of those events at which, having spent several hours negotiating, rearranging furniture and keeping people in touch with each other - there's not much for me to do on the day - which is the way it should be.

Archdeacon Karen preached a very appropriate sermon and Bishop Alan licensed her. Woughton now have a very capable new Team Vicar!

It was good to celebrate with Cathi. Best wishes to her, Howard and Seren - and all the people of Woughton as they begin a new phase of their journey!

...and so it was home again before my long night session behind my desk... got a few jobs done including the write-up of the Deanery Stratgey Meeting... and finally to sleep...

Cycles up and down

I attended the first half of team space at which we talked about the annual report.
I then attended the second day of the Master Class in Sustainable Development at which we continued to look at ways of developing models and indicators for sustainability - this time looking at how those indicators change over time.
Paul and I had to leave early, because we were also taking part in the Recession Day - which had been delayed from 5th Feb. We visited the CAB - where the big issue is the number of volunteers - the council - where we spoke to their economic advisor - and the Economic and Learning Partnership - where we learnt about the MK response - so far... It was a useful event and we probably learnt a great deal. We'll be meeting up again soon to discuss our follow up...
In the evening I was with Liz Baker for her first wedding rehersal.

Note about Recession Research (Taken from www.MKDeanery.org.uk)
On Tuesday 24th February we had a very interesting afternoon which we used to gather information about the likely effect of the recession on Milton Keynes. There were five of us in the end: Myself, Tim Clapton (our Development Chaplain), Stephen Norrish (who runs the Christian Foundation), Paul Desborough (from New Life West) and David Gregory from Loughton Baptist Church. This was a small ecumenical group but it was just the right size and make-up for the task.
Because the original day had been cancelled due to the snow we were only able to meet three key people, but we were able to interview:
Lynda Evans - Advice Services Manager of the CAB
Ephraidge Rinomhota - Senior Economic Researcher at Milton Keynes Council and
Liz Gifford - Associate Director of Milton Keynes Economy and Learning Partnership
These were all useful meetings and we gathered an enormous amount of information about the effect of the recession on Milton Keynes and the responses being planned by voluntary and civic organisations. We reflected on the cycle of debt which tends to move from employment to housing and finally to relationships. We all agreed that it would be good to keep in touch and work together on this issue over the coming months and years.
Our small group is meeting again in March to discuss our report and any action that we would recommend or attempt to coordinate. We have a number of ideas that we may build on and we are hopeful that something extremely valuable will emerge from this discussion.

Tuesday

Today was one of those days with multiple appointments and seconds to spare as I moved from one event to the next - but they were all good!

I started the day with a bit of a rush as I rushed around photocopying things while Izzy practised her cello at home for the first time! I was then delayed at school where a new teacher was trying to work out which door to open...

After a final stop at home to finish the photocopying I finally got the Well by 9:15 - fifteen minutes late. I wasn't the last to arrive however, since Colin had helpfully guided Steven Mosedale off to a completely different room. This was eventually discovered and the WVEP team come together for some very interesting discussions. Fresh expressions were on the agenda and some story telling and reflection took place...

After team space, I had a supervision session with Liz, who is doing really well as curate in the Watling Valley. Her next challange is to make a more definite link with St Mary's as a home church. I look forward to seeing how she tackles this.

At 12 I had to woosh off to Fishermead to join the Woughton Team for their weekly team lunch. They're a great bunch of people and it was good to see them getting on well and working together. We discussed weddings and the interviews for the new team vicar on Wednesday.

Unfortunatley I only had an hour for this aswell and had to rush home to pick up Paul and head off to Aylesbury for the Archdeaconry Pastoral Committee. This committee is one of those neccessary mechanisms through which significant decisions need to be passed, but there were some exciting plans in the pipeline so it felt worthwhile. It also provided me with an opportunity to ask some questions of my own after the meeting - giving me two very interesting answers concerning two very different MK issues... I was also asked to kick off the discussions about a Team Rector in Watling Valley - since the suspension is due to be lifted in February.

Finally back home with jobs to do. I finally collapsed into the bath - only to get up again for a late night readings and themes session - January to March 2010 would you bnelieve!