[Magdalen] decline of this list

[Simon Kershaw]

I guess most of us are still here. Life in retirement is busy though.

Current agenda...

Just finishing compilation of my annual calendar for the Church of 
England, used by a few thousand clergy and parishes. At least 25 years 
since I first did this.

Trying to read through documents of the long-listed candidates to be the 
next Bishop of Ely. For each candidate there are some five documents to 
plough through and to give a preliminary assessment and justification of 
whether they should be shortlisted. The 14 members of the selection 
panel (the Crown Nominations Commission) meet next week to decide on the 
shortlist. Two days of interviews and decision-making will follow in 
November.

Bishop's Council meeting tomorrow night -- papers still to be read in 
preparation.

The Saturday after next (4 October) I will be admitted and licensed as a 
Lay Reader (or Licensed Lay Minister). The good news there is that the 
two years of training are completed!

The Saturday after that is diocesan synod -- of which I am the lay 
chair. Nothing much on the agenda (ha ha), just budget and such like. 
And a debate on where the Church of England goes on same-sex 
relationships. And my co-chair, the clergy chair, who would normally 
share the role with me, is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, so I 
might be on my own.

I also have a two-day meeting of the Church of England Liturgical 
Commission at the end of October.

And then there's the important stuff like helping to look after our two 
young granddaughters. And helping deal with my two elderly 
parents-in-law who live a couple of hundred miles away: my mother-in-law 
is suffering from dementia, and my father-in-law is finding it harder 
and harder to cope.

And that's just the highlights from my diary!

simon

On 23/09/2025 21.48, Kate Conant wrote:
> Has the list died? I haven't received anything since March. Of course, I 
> hadn't written anything either.


-- 
Simon Kershaw
simon at kershaw.org.uk
Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire