[Magdalen] Please pray

[Michael Bishop]

Many thanks to all for your kind notes. It has certainly been a very 
special day - the church was packed and there were people there who I 
would never have expected to see. After a bring and share lunch we had a 
break with the bellringers from the district ringing a quarter peal to 
mark the occasion. Then we had a baptism - of the 6 week old son of a 
former bellring who now lives away, but the German mum learned to ring 
with us and after moving to Southampton on the south coast she continued 
ringing there and met her now husband - so we could claim that little 
Bruno Paul was very much a child of the belfry. Mum was determined that 
the baptism should be here, and she was taken by surprise by the 
unexpected of her parents on a special journey from Germany just for the 
occasion.

Work doesn't end until Thursday and it will keep going to the end - I 
have a wedding on Tuesday and a funeral on Wednesday!

The  parishes will have the care of  a non-stipendiary associate priest 
who has been doing some work with my parishes as well as working with 
the neighbouring group of 7 parishes. There are bound to need to be 
supply priests as well.

....
....
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

On 10/09/2017 11:56, Eleanor Braun wrote:
> 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
>>
>>