Sundays

Being a retired vicar means that Sundays are not exactly a day of rest!

I retired about four and a half years ago fondly imagining that I would have the same sort of Sunday as most other churchgoers.  I thought that the days of sermon writing and of wearing uncomfortable collars were over.  How wrong can you be!  I still take services virtually every Sunday and all too often I take two!

Today I was at St Helena’s church in a little village not far from home.  There were about ten of us in church, including a churchwarden, an organist and me.  We sang some well-known hymns, we prayed and shared Communion and then we had a chat about village life and various village characters.  It’s the only Sunday service all month at that church and people came from nearby villages to join in.  Next week I’ll take a service in another village about three miles away.  Again there will be less than a dozen people there.  There won’t be an organist.  Again it will be the only Sunday service all month.

But I love doing it.  Not many people go to church these days, even in villages although most people don’t want to see their local church boarded up.  In many villages it is retired clergy like me, or trained volunteer lay people who conduct worship.  But those who are there come because of an awareness of the love of God and a desire to worship him.  I am privileged because even in my retirement I can offer this service to God and other people.