Now I know what to think


At least I’m beginning to know what to think. After the ‘confusion‘ of last week, I am pleased to report that that has now given way to a mixture of excitement and trepidation – and there’s no confusion; that’s exactly how I feel.

Sunday was the ‘big day’, preaching as sole nominee at Kirriemuir: St. Andrew’s l/w Oathlaw Tannadice (must program a shorcut key to type that lot) [oh, and I’d link to the website but it seems to have exceeded some quota or other and isn’t working – an opportunity to move it to some more reliable, free hosting {me, in other words} I think]. Did it all go smoothly? No! I had a few glitches, of my own making. Managed to skip a hymn, but that helped claw back some time since I’d gone on a bit long, and so we finished on time after all. Struggled a bit to connect with the kids on the second service. Forgot to take water to the pulpit so had a bit of a dry throat at one point. And various other little hiccups that probably weren’t really noticed, or if they were, people were too polite to say so.

But, in the end, none of that mattered. The votes were counted and a unanimous decision was returned. We heard the enthusiastic applause as the result was announced and received the same when we went out to say hello officially. I can say that I was utterly overwhelmed. The warmth of the welcome and the enthusiasm was obvious and I still couldn’t quite believe that they had accepted me.

The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur. We had lunch with some folks from the churches and had a good look round the manse. I think my brain had shut down by that point and I was running on autopilot. By the time we got home I was absolutely shattered and felt totally drained.

It’s really only today that it has started to sink in that it’s time for a change. As messages and calls of congratulation hit the pone, txt, email and Facebook, the sense of joy and excitement gradually started to make its way into my own head and I’ve been going around in a mild state of euphoria for most of the day. There’s still a slight sense of unreality about it all. The whole process must be the most bizarre way of getting a job anywhere. There’s always one more ‘thing’ to happen it seems. For me now that is settling on a date for ordination and induction. That’s likely to be the 23rd of February, but the date’s not fixed yet. That’s far enough away to give me time to prepare, but scarily close to realise that real life, and real ministry, kicks in very soon. That’s the trepidation part.

But, for now, I can enjoy the setting aside of confusion and think about what an exciting next phase of life and ministry is about to begin.


8 responses to “Now I know what to think”

  1. 23rd of February??? Nooooooooo… I will be in Wales and come back the following day.  How gutting to miss your ordination!  Take lots of – er, make sure others take lots of piccies!  Still utterly chuffed for you old friend x

  2. That’s certainly the date that seems to crop up most often in discussion, but may yet shift. It’d be sad not to have you there. You’ve been a good friend and support. But I’m sure someone will be getting piccies.

  3. Just been looking at the cached pages from the website – they feature the vacancy quite heavily so perhaps someone has suspended the thing in order to bring it up to date.

    I let Douglas, Gillian and John Coutts know yesterday. Douglas is talking of geting to the induction.

  4. Thanks, Dave, for passing on the news. It would be good if Douglas were able to make it and join with presbytery.

    The ‘account suspended’ message is a host-generated message, usually indicating that something is over-quota. You wouldn’t use such messages for site updates.

  5. Bother…. I’ll be in Jerusalem if that date is confirmed…. Please let me know anyway so that I can tell the congregation.

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