Holidays a coming!

Today marks the last three days before we finally take our summer break.   As always there never seems to be enough time to do all the things that should be done before we go.   Still this morning I was writing my list of things to do and people to see in the last 72 hours.   My good plans for this evening were scuppered when it was discovered that one of the adults in our house would need to be at the Cub AGM and barbecue this evening.   So a parent has gone, and instead I have had to write notes to those I had hoped to see.   I'm sure I will find time to post them tomorrow.

Tomorrow will go with a swing as I attempt to meet a lady who has joined the congregation and yet I've never worked out who she was; send out some e-mails to some people about coming to speak; head into the office to tidy up before going; and spend an evening at Presbytery.

While I've now discovered that my husband is supposed to be at a concert on Wednesday, when I have an evening communion to be doing.   There have been some frantic phonecalls to arrange a short term babysitter.

And in amongst the working things I still want to leave the house clean and tidy; make sure the children get to the last week of all their activities; phone the people who own the house we are going to; pack; think about packed lunch for the journey.

No doubt as we leave in the early morning at the close of the week, I will have come to the conclusion that some things are not worth worrying about.

Challenging convention?

In the school where I share chaplaincy with a colleague, today was the Prinmary 7 Leavers' Assembly for the School.   They will do the same assembly again on Wednesday afternoon for their mums and dads.

As always the assembly was very good, with the odd moment where someone needed to speak up, or there was an in-joke no-one else would get, or people forgot their lines or their actions.   It is however always a good way to spend a Friday morning as we head towards the holidays.

A Leavers' Assembly often includes important memories of school life for the Primary 7, and this year's was no exception.   With the help of a regenerating Dr. Who and Tardis we travelled backwards and forward through their memories of school.   We joined them in Primary 1 with their teacher and their "buddies"; were whisked to Benmore for their experiences of a night-time walk; cheered on sports day and wondered at "potted" sports.   We were even taken 15 years into the future to see who the Primary 7 were in 2025 - it looked like a lot of artists, footballers and teachers.   But we also had architects, doctors, vets and racing drivers.

There was one memory that intrigued me though.  

I've been here 8 years now and my colleague, 9.   When this group of children started at the school, we were the chaplains.   In Primary 3, the children look at different celebrations and one of those is a wedding.   For a number of years now my colleague has led them through a mock wedding, while I work the sound system.   The children recognised that this was an important memory for them, and included it in their show.

That all seems fantastic, a sign that we are touching the lives of young people.   So what intrigued me?   You'll love this!   My colleague and I are both women, and yet the part of the minister in their wedding was played by a boy.   I suspect that for many of these children we are their only experience of ministers, and I'm not sure whether wonderfully or not, they recognise that ministry is a task that continues to be performed by men and women.

I found it funny, and I'm not sure how I'm going to tell my colleague that her character was played by a boy.