[Magdalen] Please pray

[Eleanor Braun]

Congratulations on your retirement!  It's a wonderful time.

And prayers for your parishes as they deal with a very different way of
being church.  Will they at least have either an interim or supply priests?

Eleanor

On Sun, Sep 10, 2017 at 3:38 AM, Michael Bishop <rev at michaelbishop.name>
wrote:

> 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.
>
> --
> ....
> ....
> 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
>
>