Recalling my valediction from college is always a little bit bittersweet.

The lovely event (midweek that year) coincided with the day a church was voting on whether or not to call me.  At the end of happy evening the phone call came and it was a 'no'.

Everyone who knows me already knows I remain utterly convinced God called me to that church.  That doesn't mean God didn't call me to Dibley or to the Gathering Place, I am equally convinced that God did.  God's 'Plan B' is never second best.

The good bits of ministry are so much better, and the bad bits so much worse, than I ever think possible.  And that day, seventeen years ago, that was profoundly illustrated.

The day after that decision I led prayers in college chapel - and was commended for being courageous.  A fellow student sent me some beautiful flowers.  My tutors and peers came alongside in ways that were gentle and supportive.  I was offered - and declined - an opt out from the wider Partnership valedictory.  Seventeen years on, some of my peers and tutors have died.  Some have moved into new forms of ministry, and some have left ministry. But they remain 'my' people.

The old hymn, 'Great is thy Faithfulness' remains a favourite, with its determined faith in adversity, of a God who always gives me - and us - strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

So now I call to mind Stephen, Nick, Gary, Andy and Diane, my peers at that time, and Richard, Rachel, Sean, Brian and Anne, my tutors, and I thank God for them all.

Every year, my ministerial alma mater invites me to attend their valedictory event - usually a Saturday, with a barbecue and a service - and every year I can't get there, either the logistics are too complicated or local commitments rightly take priority.  This year lockdown means it is taking place online, so I can take part, and that is a real joy, an unexpected blessing.

One tradition of the college, at least in my day, was to give you a book token and a book plate so that you could choose your own gift - they reckoned we had enough Bibles, and would almost certainly be presented with one at ordination, so it was over to us.  As it happened, I chose a Bible, now seventeen years old and very battered.  I am glad I made that choice, because the Bible has been with me in some of my saddest and darkest times as well as gladdest and brightest. 

I don't always use it, there are newer translations and paraphrases, but it is always on my desk, never the bookcase, and goes with me to courses, conferences, care homes, hospitals and holidays.  And every time I open it, I am reminded not of a date (unusually this one has never fixed in my brain) but of a community of people who I love, and who love me.

Today a new cohort of NBC-formed ministers will be unleashed on an unsuspecting Baptist world - I pray they may know the joy of God, the inspiration of Sophia Spirit-Wisdom and the accompaniment of Brother-Christ in all they do.

(PS: Seventeen years? How did that happen?!)