The beginning of the end.

The meeting to discuss the farewell service went well with a immediate idea that a version of Compline "Completed" the cycle. 3 hymns, psalmody, canticle and a Franciscan bit for the leaving of Community. Somehow, a big festal Eucharist does not feel right and Eucharist said would be so anti-climatic. So the night office with its sense of completion and the promise of resurrection come the morning seems to provide a better balance.

Ruby Foster's funeral is tomorrow at Christ Church. Again, I felt my re-appearence might be a distraction to the family, so I will skip that and simply remember Ruby in prayer. Not cutting myself off fom the community of which I have been a part, but working out where and when are the right places to meet and explain and say what needs to be said. This feels so different from the Kirkcaldy experience, where I thought (in part) "Thank God that's finished". Falkirk are one of the most caring and welcoming congregations I have known and it is with a real and profound sense of regret that I move into a different future. I don't want to leave at one level, but I also know there is a need to, because parish ministry is not where I ought to be. It is a very bittersweet thing to plan this departure. But it must be done. To simply slip off would be wrong.