[Magdalen] Down-hearted

[Roger Stokes]

On 17/08/2015 22:09, Marion Thompson wrote:
> That is right, Grace.  Our numbers and money at this time are not 
> adequate to pay a full-time priest and 'they' wouldn't let us form a 
> search committee when our last priest left for BC in February. At that 
> time we were deemed to be Unsustainable.  We loved the interim we had 
> for five months, a warm pastoral man who viewed his time with us as an 
> enriching learning opportunity.    The bishop paid us a couple of 
> visits and outlined a rather grim future for us, essentially become a 
> mission of one of the uptown churches or die/close. Thanks to the 
> sterling work of the Food Bank, now 'under new management', we are now 
> called Strategic.  We were told that this new man would start a 
> maximum two-year appointment at the beginning of July and be heavily 
> subsidized by the Diocese. ( Our interim, alas, to his regret and ours 
> was cut out of the game.)  As the bishop's man, he has made very clear 
> that his job is to bring the wardens and the congregations up to the 
> same point of thinking as the bishop now is, and he is to get us ready 
> for a Yes/No vote sooner rather than later.  He's talking months.

That is wrong.  Neither priest not bishop should have a clear idea of 
the end-point and the timescale is way too short.  To do anything in a 
helfway pastoral way takes years, not months.

> If we live that long, I am NOT looking forward to Holy Week on his 
> watch!  I can see continuing with the Food Bank, but it may come that 
> I might as well patronize one of the two Anglican churches a stone's 
> throw from my home, heck, maybe even the RC church virtually across 
> the street.  I'd certainly save an awful lot of gas.  Sure the bishop 
> can lift my lay reader's licence, but I have my pride and that might 
> just be the price I would pay.  My previous dealings with them have 
> prepared me for such a move on their part and it would be their loss.

Good for you that you are prepared to make that sacrifice. Conscience is 
worth more than that.

Roger