[Magdalen] Please pray

[Michael Bishop]

Dear All
I am quietly waiting to go across to church for my final celebration of 
the Eucharist as a rector in my parishes as I retire from stipendiary 
ministry this coming Thursday which is my 70th birthday. The service 
will be a very special one - the congregations of my 8 parishes will be 
coming together for this service and the numbers seem likely to be very 
large as people who I would not have expected have been saying they will 
be here.
The last few weeks have made me feel like Frank Sinatra - with lots of 
farewell visits and events.
.It will be hard to go - I have been here for almost 21 very happy years 
-living here longer than anywhere else in my life - but the time is 
unquestionably right. Please pray for me as I seek to settle into new 
ways in my retirement home in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire and for the 
parishes I will be leaving. They have a time of uncertainty as they 
await the Bishop's decision on what the future will bring for them. It 
seems almost certain that there will be a long inter-regnum as the 
diocese seems to see vacancies as an opportunity to save  money from the 
budget. People find it difficult to understand why there is as yet not 
even the beginnings of a search for a new parish priest.
God bless us all.

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God bless

Michael Bishop
rev at michaelbishop.name

Rector of Boylestone, Church Broughton, Dalbury, Longford, Long Lane, Sutton-on-the-Hill & Trusley

Diocese of Derby, England