Tag: Placement

  • 8 months gone in a flash

    There are times when life seems to pass by so quickly. That seems never more true than when you are on a placement. Uni term times whizz past, but they’re only ten weeks. Holidays whizz past, but they’re only a couple of weeks tops. Placements though are 8 months and when that last Sunday rolls…

  • Looking back

    At the end of this month I will have finished my third placement. This is the last one before probation (starting on the 1st September – or rather the 2nd, as the 1st is a conference day). As with any placement there’s plenty of paperwork to do and I’ve been finishing off my placement report.…

  • Coming up for air

    I’ve not blogged much recently simply because I’ve been pretty busy. I know I owe Scott a post about my own theological stance but that’s going to have to wait a bit longer as well. I finally got the first of my research essays handed in last week. Late, but accepted, after a slight misunderstanding…

  • Lack of progress

    I’ve been struggling with an essay for the last couple of weeks or so. Not that I don’t know what to write or that I’m not interested in the subject, but simply that I am struggling to motivate myself to get on with it. Part of the problem is a busy time on placement. I…

  • Stories (again)

    Apologies up front – this is very much a ‘thinking out loud’ blog entry and may well descend into a bit of a rant. You have been warned! Even so, I’d appreciate your thoughts. On Sunday I was leading the whole service and the choice of hymns, reading, sermon, etc was entirely mine. Over Advent…

  • A first

    Today was my first solo funeral service and I was happy enough with how it went. I made (so far as I’m aware) only one verbal gaffe but it was a fairly minor one and not something that would be likely to cause upset. I managed to lop 10 years off the person’s age. I…

  • By way of explanation

    This blog forms part of my ongoing journalling and reflection on my training process into ministry. I generally blog about particular theological issues I’m wrestling with and those discussions are open to all as I seek to understand different viewpoints. Sometimes the topic is about particualr situations or events that have been part of my…

  • From personal experience

    Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead the whole service in my placement church. Not a big problem – it’s something I’ve done many times. That said, being somewhere new has the added pressures of not knowing what they know, not knowing how recently they may have covered the chosen passage (an advantage of following…

  • One small step…

    … one not so giant leap. Today I got to participate in a funeral for the first time. It might seem odd that I haven’t done so before now but the opportunity simply hasn’t arisen (and I’ll not mention the microscopic funeral count, relatively speaking, to be ‘enjoyed’ in Brussels). So having had the opportunity…

  • New beginnings

    Yesterday was my first official Sunday at my latest placement church – Larbert East. I had snuck in the week before didn’t announce who I was or why I was there (apart from to the one who sussed me out). Anyway, it was in at the deep end, doing the opening prayer and the all-age…