This week we've been getting ready for the vicar school valedictory service, which takes place tomorrow afternoon.  'In my day' as the saying goes, it was on a Tuesday evening, because most of us were either based in Manchester or would be staying over.  The book I chose to buy (an inclusive language NIV at a time when such a thing was fairly new and exciting) is decidedly tatty 21 years on, and although it rarely gets used nowadays, sits on my desk at home.

This week, as I've been taking time to recall those with whom I trained, and who were in the years above/below me, and to wonder where they are now.  It was sobering to discover, with a bit of online searching, that, of my cohort, I am the last person still in active Baptist ministry... there were six of us valedicted that year, three have now retired, two are no longer in accredited Baptist ministry, and me.  I think that of the two no longer in ministry, one made it to 20 years , and the other to around 15, so between us it's the greater part of 120 years service, which is no small thing... certainly several thousand sermons, as well as hundred of Deacons and Church meetings.

Tomorrow we will celebrate another cohort, women and men who have responded to God's call, have tested that time and again, and who are still committed to serving among these crazy people called Baptists.  I give thanks for A, D, G, N and S with whom I was valedicted, and pray for B, C, C, J, J, K, P, P and S who we will valedict tomorrow.