A long road trip for a very good reason...

So I've completed an academic year of study, but of course this is not the only education an ordinand needs if they are actually going to minister effectively in the Church. And though I am training to be a Minister of Word and Sacrament, leading worship on a Sunday morning is not the only thing I will have to do, as I have discovered this week. In fact, finding time to prepare worship for a Sunday morning will be a challenged!

Though as a first year, it is not a requirement for me to undertake a placement this summer, I thought that this might be a good use of some of my summer vacation. Yes, I know some of you are now saying "what a swot" and maybe I am, but would you have me any other way! However, there is a specific aim to my placement - pastoral encounters - which has led me not just to be a shadow to my supervising minister over the past week and for the coming weeks, but to also spending time reflecting on what relation things have to being a pastor, as well as going a long road trip.

As I sit blogging, in another window I have the live stream from the United Reformed Church General Assembly running. Ok, maybe I should find something else to do with my Saturday afternoon, but there is a point to this. As part of my consideration of pastoral encounters, my Supervisor and I felt that though we were not to be members of General Assembly this year, it was actually very important to be there, if only for a short time. Therefore, I found myself in Scarborough for a day, and now find myself listening to the live stream.

As a denomination, the URC is trying to look towards a future that 40 years ago it didn't think it would be facing. It is a church of diversity, which we celebrate, but also one which seeks to be uniting, if not united. However, there are some issues that are difficult to discuss and discern the right way forward. But as a gathering a Christians we have a common mission (as we were reminded by the new moderator Michael Jagessar in his address to General Assembly) - sharing the good news of God's of full life (salvation) for all. And in what we do and say we are not alone, because God is there in the midsts.