Well, what a week! Here we are, four days into lockdown 3 and eight days into 2021. Doesn’t it feel like longer?!

Anyway, I am rating this week 5/10. Highs and lows, highs and lows.

One Sunday I preached at the joint service, about God being with us on our journey even when the road is a struggle. Monday involved meetings, admin and, of course, the dreaded press conference. On Tuesday, we had a day of training and on Wednesday we fed 25 people at Foodbank. Yesterday I had another training day and today I took a funeral.

We have made the difficult decision this week to close church for face to face worship. In lockdown 1, churches were instructed to close by the government but this time they are allowed to remain open. This means it is up to each minister to decide if they want to close their building. I really wrestled with this, but I just cannot justify risking the health of people who come to church. Eventually, we decided to honour the commitment of the church funeral we have booked in for the week after next, but after that we will be doing no more. It’s tough, but on balance I do think it’s the best thing to do in my context.

It’s all tired me out, and thankfully, from this evening, we are on annual leave for a week – not that we can go anywhere! I plan to spend the time, resting, reading and getting on top of some housework when the mood strikes!

The Little Win in ministry this week was getting two funerals organised for the week we get back. I’ve sent off running orders, written eulogies and made a lot of phone calls, and now I’m as organised as I can be at this point.

And so I am now clocking off!

More next time 🙂