The aim was to blog about Vicar School as it happened and keep a record of all that went on throughout the year. But what I actually have is a brain full of slightly jumbled memories and a vibrant Facebook photo album called 'Vicar School'- no blogs in sight!
So I sit here in Grantham train station about to start my final week of my last block placement of College, first pumpkin spiced latte of the season in hand, 9 months of training left, with one main question: how the hell did that happen?!
The truth is that so much has happened that I haven't had much change to give any thought to my 'ordinand adventures' blog. And much as I'd like to promise that this coming year will be different, I can't. So I just thought I'd throw down a few ideas about the last year while I had a spare half an hour before final year starts.
So, a whistle stop tour of my first year of training, by Poppy Richards:
-I arrived at College and the first two weeks were an exhausting blur of new friends, new rules, new jargon and too many carbs (see previous post).
-I started placement on Sundays and Fridays in a brilliant Church which was higher than anything I've ever worked in before. I was involved in a funeral service for the first time, which I found to be a hugely moving experience.
-Before we knew it we were at our first year weekend away. This is where we gave up our day off to spend time together in a retreat house thinking about formation, playing card games and finally learning everyone's name!
-Then we rolled into November where Durham was filled with light and millions of people for Lumiere. But despite the excellent display of lights, my body was present in Durham when my mind and heart were not. My excellent family rallied together as my Mum had surgery and, yet again, astounded us all at her resilience and strength. #hero
-In our Mission lecture, we were sent out in pairs to proclaim the Good News. There is only so much time you can spend talking about something before you are itching to get on and do it!
-Cranmer hosted an women's conference, Named, Known and Called, where I sang in the band. Watching a room full of women sing 'you have our hearts, Lord, take our lives' truly renewed my faith in the Church and still gives me heaps of hope for the future.
-We slid quickly into December where Durham got COLD and spirits were high. John's Music Night, where talent was dripping from the walls, reminded me why I'd chosen to come to Cranmer in the first place. The undergrad and postgrad students (non ordinands) that we share a College with can enrich training so much if we let it. They are excellent.
-Term finished with a service in he Cathedral and a Cranmer Party. Strangers a term ago were now best friends and I left Durham for the holidays both bursting with joy, and tired to my core!
In and amongst all that, I had fallen in love (yuck, vom, gross, cringe, slush. Yeah, I get it, and I didn't see it coming either). But the new year didn't bring the usual resolutions and heart ache (January and February have been particularly difficult months over the past few years). Instead it brought sunlight shimmering, strawberry ice cream, all encompassing joy in the form of a relationship with my boyfriend, Nathan.
-Straight to work though, the day after we got together I preached on placement, videoed myself and the had to critique myself in an essay. This is not an experience I wish to repeat- hearing myself preach on video was weird and awkward.
-In February I found myself in Prison for the weekend (!) with others on my course, leading a group of men in a Faith Sharing Weekend based on the Psalms.
-In March placement wound up, Easter came and I ran for an Exec position in College. I get to help out both the Cranmer and the St John's Common Rooms by acting as the point of communication between them and encouraging inter Common Room relations.
Final term was a weird blur with block teaching and all kinds of different things. There was Sex & Gender, diversity week, a placement in a school, a week in a monetary, mission in Newcastle Cathedral on referendum day and, of course, lots of goodbyes followed by the ordinations of some of the best men and women that I know.
Just before I wrap up, I may as well cover summer while I'm at it! 3 weddings, a hospital placement, a Parish placement, a festival, birthday parties and curacy visits.
So there you have it. To quote Rent (a musical reference, of course!), how do you measure a year like that?
Cups of tea? Midnight theological conversations?Stones gained through College food and a boyfriend who makes you happy? Essays? Grades? Songs sung? People reached? Hearts touched? Miles travelled? Sermons preached? Friends made?
It can't be done, such a year cannot be measured. But I can say that gradually, but by bit, I have been stretched, formed, molded and changed by the things seen and experienced this last year. Sometimes you don't realise how far you've come until you look back to where you started from.
Thank you, Cranmer Hall.
