I’ve had several deep conversations this week about vocation – some listening to others while they figure out what they are about, and a couple about my own future – what might I do when my time at my current college eventually comes to an end (nearly two years away yet). I was reflecting again as I was tidying up the Chapel at lunchtime what a curiously wide-ranging task it is. There are high moments choreographing grand ritual and writing or delivering speeches and sermons and books that thousands will read or hear, and invisible but life changing work guiding, caring, listening and praying with and for any number of people. But the spaces in between are filled with unglamorous tasks like photocopying the service sheets and just picking up the trash (for no matter how much help other people put in I spend several hours every week picking up little bits of paper, dismantling dead flower arrangements and washing the scungey vases, and all sorts of odd little jobs that don’t really belong to anyone else.)

Ministry is sometimes intense and sometimes drudgery, sometimes hugely fulfilling and sometimes just leaves you dog tired and wondering what you’re about. It’s difficult to put boundaries round it, and to describe a typical day is nearly impossible, as one day can be so different from the next.

All of which reminded me of this marvellous quote from Kim Fabricius, who describes ministry as “that wonderful vocation provided by
the good Lord for displaced Christian intellectuals who are useless at
proper work.”