We have completed our first weekend residential of the year... a couple of dozen ministerial students gathering in Manchester to learn, form and reflect together.  There was a lot to do... from admin to community forming, from worship to thinking about governance, from options to visit an art gallery to space for craft and quiet contemplation.

It was good, and my colleagues are amazing!  I am looking forward to seeing where this academic year takes us.

Yesterday afternoon was my induction service in Manchester, and it was a joyful and joyous occasion.

The preacher, drawing on vine imagery from John 15 spoke about the intertwining of participants such that 1+1+1 = 1, where the three 1s were Church, Catriona and Christ... as we work together so love evolves, and ministry and mission emerges.

I had also prepared little 'goody bags' for those who came along, each with three hearts...

• A wooden heart with the words 'love shows itself in actions' (paraphrased from 1 John 3:18) one of the texts for preaching
• A chocolate heart because, apart from needing a sweet treat, it is a symbol of love, and that love is good (taste and see that the Lord is good... kind of...)
• A paper heart, impregnated with wild flower seeds and with a bee image... because of Manchester bees... and because the kingdom of God is like wildflowers... and because love is sacrificial (unless an ear of wheat falls to the ground...)

My good friend R assures me that is the last time she will ever 'preach me in' (she's done it three times) and I have assured her it's the last time I will ask her (because we both now nearing retirement age!).

The love ethic of the God who is love - what better sermon could anyone preach.

This morning I will be received into Membership at my new church, and this afternoon I will be inducted as the Minister.

A morning cup of tea in a seventeen year old mug! I know this because I was given it (actually I was given two) the evening before my induction service in The Gathering Place.

It’s sitting on a coaster I have had one week, a fun gift as part of leaving present from Railway Town Baptist Church.

And not forgetting dear old Dibley Baptist Church who took a chance on a NAM nearly 23 years ago, and so gave the opportunity to start writing this story.

A special day and at the same time an ordinary day - I am sure with more cups of tea along the way!!

There are all sorts of guidelines about moving house with cats... some more helpful than others, it has to be said.  Over the last couple of days, now that they have been here two weeks, I have slowly been introducing the kitties to the garden... first of all just a few minutes, with me following very closely and scooping them up if they showed any signs at all of going too close to potential exit routes!  Yesterday, and this morning I have (at least temporarily, and ham fistedly) blocked the two gaps in the fence, and today they were actually allowed out, watched from a distance, to explore on their own.  I had all the trepidation I imagine of a parent letting their child play in the garden 'unsupervised' for the first time and watching from the kitchen window.  After around half an hour they each wandered back inside, looking for 'second breakfast' before settling down for a nap.

I am in a similar place, albeit as a grown up human not being actively watched or confined to fenced in space... Where are the boundaries and what are they? What is safe and what is unsafe? And yes, the mysterious truth that, unseen but still there, God is watching through the kitchen window of heaven to make sure that I don't do myself, or anyone else, any serious harm, whilst giving us the freedom to explore and experience life in this new place.

Unlike the kitties, I have not had second breakfast, nor will I take a nap, but I do know that this is a good place to be, and that God is with me.

The photo - a jigsaw piece and a tube of bubble mixture - was taken at yesterday's service... the jigsaw piece, a reminder that the jigsaw that is God's church doesn't have corners of edges, but is composed of pieces that can be rearranged endlessly, and connected to other partial jigsaws to form something beautiful... and bubbles as small, fleeting, vulnerable expressions of prayer.

I have now completed ministries with three 'smaller' churches...

• Dibley had a membership in the twenties, and, at the time, ran a lunch club with over sixty members
• The Gathering Place was middle sixties, and saw itself as small
• Railway Town has upper twenties in formal membership but now nearer eighty in regular contact

And Church No 4... ah yes, it has to await a nickname - has around sixty members

These churches have much in common, as well as much that is unique, but what strikes me is the beauty of their smallness and (relative at least) vulnerability... these are churches where you are known by name, and where you are missed if you missing... these are churches where you are needed (and also where you can't really hide)... these are churches that have to live with a degree of messiness and uncertainty... these are the churches that are like jigsaw pieces, and bubbles, and dandelion seeds... these are the churches that are like pearls of great price, formed in hidden places, wrought of sacrifice... these churches are beautiful... 

I am sure that God loves them, and I am privileged to serve them.