First Year of Training

Hello! Wow it has been ages since I posted so here is an update. Last Sept I started my Anglican Lay Minister training and I have been through a mixture of highs and lows. I never realised that a) it would be so difficult and b) the amount of coursework involved.

When I started, I felt very much, woooh what am I doing here – it was obvious to me I was totally out of my depth. Each week I planned to leave the following week… This continued until around January when I actually started to enjoy the course and the challenges it brought.

Running our business and doing the coursework has meant working 7 days a week since last Sept – and I finally finished all coursework for the first year last Saturday! Yaaaaaaaaaay I now have 6 weeks until the second year starts (2 Sept) to do what I want!

So my highs and lows – in no particular order…

Lows

• First few months of struggling and feeling out of my depth
• My realisation that my Christian formation and knowledge of the Anglican Church – both in terms of understanding and practicalities is severely lacking
• The overwhelming workload
• My mobility – felt stressed at each residential

Highs

• The community of tutors and students at SWMTC – full of kindness, compassion, and support. I cannot put into words how caring this community is.
• Managing to get pass marks in my essays which at the beginning I thought would be impossible
• My fabulous, awesome Christian friends who have been there at every minute to offer a chat and support. Could not have done this year without you!
• I am presently on a church placement at the Church of Ascension in Crownhill and this has to be included on my high list! I feel really at home here and have received so much support and help.

And I feel I should mention my ultimate low last October when my best friend in the whole world Sue passed away. I couldn’t write this without mentioning her. She was such a bright light in my life for nearly 50 years and was the sister I never had. This will be my ultimate memory of my first year. God bless her.

So there it is…. I am so sorry I have been pretty much absent… I will try to remedy this for the future and now have 6 weeks of freedom yaaaaaaaaaaaay!
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God bless you all x