I spent the afternoon with a group of retired clergy in Perth and a nice group of people they were. I know that they are probably all very busy – because retired people often say that they don’t know how they managed to fit in time for working life, etc.,etc – but it was great not to have to do any persuading or encouraging, etc. Meanwhile I gave myself to some pondering about retirement and how it might be managed. The key question seems to be what happens in the space between thinking how nice it would be not to have a full diary and not being sure who I would be if I had an empty one.
And then I visited another Vestry on my tour of congregations which have signed up to be part of the next phase of Casting the Net – eight at present. It’s looking good – indeed, it’s about all that our resources can cope with. We decided that a visit to each Vestry from the bishop would be a useful part of the ‘sign-up’ process so I’m working my way round. I always enjoy visiting Vestries – mainly because they don’t understand the rule which says that whatever the bishop says they must answer ‘Yes’.
By the way our Casting the Net Gathering in the Cathedral on May 15 is also looking good. We’ve deliberately kept the mesh pretty big for this one so we’ll see what happens.