So many happy memories of very sick people now well and living life to the full often in a different way more being than doing. So many memories of walking alongside those who were nearing the end of life and sharing in the last weeks, the celebration of a unique life, and the working with grieving families in their loss. The Pennants of this world are little beacons of hope to so many people. We live in a world of pressure to conform, where so often disability, illness and dying are still viewed as failures and the very frail are marginalised, their needs unheard. This is the ministry and mission of the church at work now and for the future.
Life never stands still and the greatest harvest of all is our own completion.
That is what we are all inevitably moving towards in as creative a way as possible. I had told the Bishop that I felt I could remain as Priest in Charge for four or five years. On reflection I know that my energy was not as it had been before my illness last winter and that the work I felt called to undertake at Pennant was, for me, complete. I had come to the end of the vision and it was time to step aside so that another could take the task over and bring in new ways and skills, while our project was still fulfilling the great needs of so many groups and individuals. Thank you all for your letters and cards, my house here is full of them.