Synod and meetings!!!!!! A few thoughts !

Now I know its September!

I am  sitting in our Synod the gathering of representatives from the circuits that make up our Methodist district of Sheffield. Many of us keeping an eye on our phones to see what the Labour leadership result would be. Well what a result as Jeremy Corbyn wins by a landslide , people did not expect that a couple of months ago. It appears he has tapped into something very deep rooted that seeks to go to the heart of the ethos of a socialist understanding of society.

Well I wish we could tap into something that brings a real spark of excitement to this synod it feels like we have lost our way, our roots.......

So its the end of the week and  I have journeyed through a series of meetings. Two pastoral committees, a supers gathering, circuit meeting and thankfully these have been balanced out by conducting a funeral and some good pastoral visits made possible by creating more space in the diary by not doing or going to pointless meetings. 

One of the positive outcomes in having a TIA in March with time for reflection during my sabbatical, is claiming back my life from the treadmill of meetings, and to begin to reconnect with the call to make time for people. Being set free is a state of mind as you give yourself permission to not feel guilty if you are not at every meeting or rushing around like a headless chicken. This is really liberating to remember that being set free as a minister was so you could be available to exercise a ministry. If diaries are so crammed with 'important meetings' you either can not respond to needs as they arise or you squeeze more into the day which just increases the pressure which becomes unhealthy. So I now find myself back in the place which asks the questions 'Do I need to be at this meeting? Will this meeting be anything more than a talking shop?  and Will any decisions be made that will in fact be implemented?  It does not take long, putting a healthy dose of cynicism to one side to know the answers. Suddenly the diary opens up and quality of life improves. You can attend properly to others when real needs are heard. Its not that you are not passionate about things when you are in meetings its just you can stop taking yourself so seriously.

So day be day, week by week I will claim back my sense of being called to be a minister and I may not be at the next synod and strangely enough the world will not collapse.