Endings and new beginnings

The last three days were my final time away as a Foundation training student which was very strange indeed - the seven of us have travelled a long way together in two and a half years, and shared many things both good and bad. 

I set off believing I would be in need of my tissues for this emotional time, but for most of the time we were together we celebrated our training together. 

It was a time to reflect on where we had been, how far we had come and where we are going. And we had a great meal out, on Friday night, accompanied by the various staff who have walked alongside us. 

It was only Saturday morning as we gathered on our own to pray together as a group, before two of us had to leave earlier than the formal goodbye timetable had planned, that the true weight that we will never really be together as a group in the same way really hit home. 

We have a reunion planned, and all have emails, mobiles and could even get in touch by snail mail at a push but the monthly sharing of our lives together is over. It will now take effort on our part, to stay in touch and not let the pressure of the next two years and new friendships stop us from supporting each other. 

This was the time that the tissues were needed - and in no way just by me!! It is hard moving on but the time is right for the next stage in our journeys to start.

Methodist Conference is next week, and this is where where the decisions made at the Connexional Committee will be ratified and I will formally become a Methodist Student Minister. It is a significant moment in my journey and one my Church have decided to recognise formally,  during the service this morning.

The reason I had to leave the GCC early yesterday, was so that I could go to Rochester, to the cathedral, to see two very special friends Ordained Priests, the next stage in their journey. My love thoughts and prayers are with them both as they celebrate their first Communion this morning - with Jeremy as he is Priested today and celebrates his first communion on Tuesday, and with Lincoln, David, Gwilym and Martin Ordained as Deacons yesterday.

For all of us it has been a weekend of significant endings and significant beginnings.

The next step along the path, the way ahead is different for each of us, we will each have different travelling companions - but the one thing we can all be certain of is that as we travel, Christ travels with each one of us, whatever the next step is and wherever the path leads.