Or spouses.  Spice sounds more fun though.

This is something I've thought for ages but never got round to posting.

In each of my churches I have had ministers' spice - wives and widows - and they are just such a wonderful blessing to the girlie rev because they know what life in a manse really is like.

Every now and then I get a card from Ruby (not her real name) a minister's widow who always has something encouraging to say, and who was always a great ally for "interesting" funerals!

From time to time Ruth (also masked) sends me an email that pops up to cheer my day and regularly expresses her appreciation for my preaching.

Rose, Norma and Elin (OK the masking is thin if you know who any of these five spices in two churches are!) always smile at me across the church on a Sunday and share a laugh at the oddities of church life.

Not one of these women has had an easy life.  Some of them have experienced great personal tragedy in the very public sphere of the church.  They have seen their husbands hurt by what churches do at their worst and they have seen the impact on their children (where relevant) of living in the goldfish bowl.  Yet each is still there, week by week, "keeping on keeping on" as Ruby says, and loving their ministers as only the spices can.

And I love them.  I love their honesty, their insight, their wit and wisdom, their faithfulness and the sense of solidarity they express.

It's not that these women are any more wonderful than anyone else, it's just that their ministry of spiciness is so easily overlooked.  So, for today at least, let's hear it for the spice!!