Today we are baptising one of our folk who will be received into membership tomorrow.  This is a little unusual, though hardly unique, and is the right thing for us to be doing.  This is not the unusualness to which I am alluding.  It is unusual (though I am sure not unique) in that minister, assistant and candidate are all women... and I am fairly confident it will be a first in the Baptist Union of Scotland.

It's funny (peculiar not ha ha) that for the most part our mental images of events in church life are with male leaders... if you look on line a baptism photos it is, by and large, men (with male assistants if they deign to have them) doing the dunking.  The other three baptisms I've conducted have all had male assitants (deliberately, and for diverse reasons) so this is a first for me.

We had a great time at our 'dry run' with lots of laughter, which we followed with tea and scones.  I pray that our candidate and all who participate today will have a wonderful, meaningful time.  I joking said to the candidate she's be able to walk on water afterwards - when the internal steps of the portable baptistry refused to sink it looked like my words might prove true!!  (Sorted now)

PS I agreed not to put ducks in the baptistry (after the service) this time but am still on the look out for an alternative!!

The first week back is almost done... 'just' the Baptism service tomorrow and then Sunday worship to go.  It's been busy, quite a lot of hours worked, quite a lot still to do, and I am tired... in a good way.

So it was delivery pizza (expensive, but a treat) for tea, washed down with a large mug of tea, and now I will go and sort a few final bits for tomorrow.

Tired and happy - a good way to be on Friday evening.

This Sunday will be my first preach since the end of my sabbatical and I am looking forward to it greatly, even if my sermon writing skills are really rather rusty at the moment!  It is also a significant weekend in many, many ways...

The first Sunday in October is the official 'church anniversary' of both Dibley BC and The Gathering Place (who in real life share the same initials) being 215 and 130 years old respectively.  Each of these congregations was planted by visionary people, Dibley first meeting in a farm house and the Gatherers in the library, reflecting nature of their contexts.  Both have (had) the legacy (blessing or burden?!) of Victorian buildings and in different ways have lived courageously through all that entails.  Each has its permanent place in my heart.

The first weekend in October is the anniversary of my induction at the Gathering Place, four years ago, and we will be renewing our covenant based on the BUGB Five Core Values, as well as receiving someone into Membership.  Entering year five, I feel very settled and content, have some ideas from my sabbatical which may be worth exploring, and having realised (finally) that even super woman needs to say 'no' sometimes.

October 5th is my believer Baptism anniversary (like a lot of Baptist ministers I am double-done having been 'christened' as a baby and having 'wrestled' with God for a decade before getting very, very wet!) which was a significant step on the road to hearing a call to ordained ministry.  Hard to believe that day, which feels so fresh in my mind was 16 years ago.  A lot of water has flown under the metaphorical bridge since then, I have changed a lot and learned a lot, but I think at the core I still the same person trying to follow Jesus in a complicated world.

October 5th this year is a Saturday and I will Baptising someone in a very special service.  During my ten years (nearly, ordination anniversary is December) of ministry this is my fourth Baptism.  I waited a very long time for the first, but it was incredibly special to Baptise a woman in her 70s who is now very active in the leadership of Dibley BC.  And now in just over a year this is the third of someone who is part of the Gathering Place.  One in the sea in Devon (!), one on Pentecost Sunday, and now one on this personally precious date.  Four very different people, with very different stories and each one a real privilege.

So Happy Birthday Dibleyites and Gatherers, may you continue into your respective futures with faith, joy and indefatigable hope.

Baptismal Blessings for my (our) candidate, may you receive from God that for which you hope

Thank you God for, once again, making the ordinary special

Apparently one of the ministers who preached during the summer made some creative use of 'wordles' and other images (thank you, thta's a really good steop forward in our use of multimedia) so I thought I'd have a play with some of the liturgy we will be using on Sunday for our Covenant Service.  I made several shapes, some more creative and others more linear, and had a play with colour schemes.  Here are two of them that work with my blog colour scheme - enjoy!

The sabbatical clearly left me way too chilled out - yesterday I arrived at church with no watch, no phone and no diary.  So I ended up emailing myself a list of stuff to pick up and bring in today!!  It was a long day yesterday but a good one - just need to make sure I don't get sucked back onto the workaholic treadmill!