Retirement really begins

 Well it’s the evening of September1st  a day which marks the beginning of a new Methodist year and for me the formal moment when I stop being ‘an active Methodist Minister’. I've spent the day looking after a grandson playing football in the park, being made to giggle by his zest for life, and cutting up wood as I make new benches for my greenhouse. It's been lovely and relaxing.

Meanwhile ministers all over the country will have started new appointments,  probationer ministers beginning their ministry, and all of them facing the madness of church, circuit and district meetings ahead. So I won't be missing the bureaucratic lifecycle that is the Methodist church. Too much tick boxing, schedules completed and filed away. No doubt there will be new initiatives being sent down that will save the local church from its ongoing decline. I have much sympathy for my now active colleagues who will exert themselves in a new Methodist year. I hope that they won't be too constrained by the system, that they will be risk takers and be pragmatic about what really needs to be done. If they don't they will exhaust themselves in worry and guilt.

If I didn't glance at twitter,  today could have passed me by, though me bank app did let me know my pension has been paid in. So its kind of strange to be a pensioner but as I said to a colleague recently I am enjoying not working. Five grandchildren and a new garden to create is more than enough for now. Lets hope that the cost of living crisis doesn't drive me out to work again!!!!


Creator God
you brought everything into being,
you turned chaos into order
and invited humanity to work with you.

Forgive us 
for creating chaos in our world
by our abuse of creation
our lack of sharing earths resources
and our failure to risk loving
as you love.

Pour into our world
and our lives
Your presence 
that we might work with you
to create Your Kingdom
bringing Peace, Joy, and Love. Amen 
(c) Mark Goodhand 1st September 2022



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