Hello, thank you for calling in. I don't write anything for weeks and now there are two posts in four days! I have something which I find I am bursting to share with you.
I had an unexpected doorstep visitor last Saturday: the new vicar called to introduce himself and to give me a posy of daffodils for Mothering Sunday. The parish church always gives out these posies at the Mothering Sunday service but as the building is currently closed, the church apparently decided that its men would deliver them across the parish to all the women on the electoral roll as well as some others. Isn't that lovely? I was surprised to have been included as I left the church more than four years ago and have no intention of returning.
I was also touched that the vicar wanted to meet me. He took up the post last summer, the previous incumbent having left in 2018. Said incumbent was a bully who spent as little time as possible with his parishioners, taking Saturday as his day off and so legitimately avoiding most of the church's social and community events. A few months after his arrival in the parish in 2013 he wrote on Facebook, "Can anyone unstick me from this fracking church?" and later, after he had driven out a significant number of people, he wrote, "I am an ecclesiastical enema removing the blockages in the Church" and as he hadn't enabled any privacy settings, the whole world was able to read his opinions of us. It was a damaging experience and I hope you can see how an unexpected visit from a vicar who wanted to meet me and bring me some flowers was surprising, charming and a moment of brightness during lockdown.
Please stay safe and take care, coronavirus hasn't gone away.
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x
What a wonderful gesture, I love daffodils and have so many fond memories of my daughters when they were small gathering them for me for Mothering Sunday.
ReplyDeleteThose must be lovely memories. x
DeleteI'm sorry that you got landed with an incumbent like that and I'm glad you've now got someone who loves his parishioners.
ReplyDeleteI like your daffodils but I love your elephant!
Thank you. I think you are the first ordained person who has apologised. I love elephants and my daughter made this one for me several years ago, I doubt that she intended it to become a permanent fixture but how could I let it go? x
DeleteWhat a lovely gesture of friendship from your new and hopefully more community minded vicar. I remember as a child coming home from Mothering Sunday services clutching a daffodil or two which were always put in a glass milk bottle on the kitchen window sill:)
ReplyDeleteRosie, I am delighted that so many people have similar childhood memories. When I started attending this church, thirty years ago, I had never come across these Mothering Sunday posies before and I didn't realise that churches had been doing it for years. x
DeleteThat was a lovely idea to give out posies. It reminds me of when I was a child. On Mothering Sunday all the children were invited to church to collect a posy of daffodils to take home to mum. This new vicar sounds like a keeper. Out with the old and in with the new.
ReplyDeleteI do hope so, so far he is making a good impression. I am glad to have reminded you of sweet childhood memories. x
DeleteNot sure whether to be horrified or laugh at the old vicar's rudeness...but how lovely of the new one to give out the daffodils because he wanted to...not because he had to. x
ReplyDeleteOh Jackie, please be horrified, it got much worse over the next few years. Yes, the new vicar seems to understand how to be a proper Christian. x
DeleteWhat a lovely act of kindness for the vicar to bring you flowers. The other one should be defrocked! Enjoy those daffodils.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lorrie. We asked for help with the old vicar but apparently, the position is very secure and he could only be made disciplined if he either embezzled church funds or had an affair with a parishioner (which the interim minister did!). It was all very painful. x
DeleteThat's a lovely gesture, which I'm sure would have been well received by many.
ReplyDeleteAnd I pity the new vicar. It sounds like they have a lot of damage to repair. X
A great deal of damage in the community Jules, but he is aware of it and starting somewhere. x
DeleteWhat a thoughtful thing to organise. It's a good job the old Vicar has moved on and the Parish can breathe again. x
ReplyDeleteYou have put it beautifully, Karen.x
DeleteSuch a thoughtful gesture. Things look a little brighter in your local church :) B x
ReplyDeleteThey certainly do Barbara, but I can't bring myself to go there. x
DeleteThe Mothering Sunday tradition of giving a bunch of seasonal flowers at the church service I remember well. It was a good opportunity for the vicar to go out into the community at this time of the pandemic. I'm sorry that the previous vicar caused upheaval. I hope there will be real change for the better now that he has gone. Enjoy your daffodils. All the best Mrs Tiggywinkle.
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda. At the beginning of Lent, this new vicar printed cards for Ash Wednesday and used the ashes of the burned palm crosses to "paint" crosses onto them before delivering them across the parish. He does seem like a good man. My daffodils are still bringing me joy. x
DeleteWell you should take people as you find them and that is a great first impression I would say. Have a good week Shropshire Lass. Jo x
ReplyDeleteYou too, my lovely. Spring has sprung. x
DeleteI chose atheism when I was given the choice by my parents when I was 11 but always accompanied Mum & Grandma to church on Mothering Sunday when I could as they loved their posies.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely gesture from the new vicar! x
I bet your Mum and Grandma really appreciated that. My atheist daughter comes to church with me sometimes, including on Christmas Day, and I love her for that because I know that she's doing it just for me. x
ReplyDeleteOh how wonderful that he visited you with flowers. There are good and bad in us all, including vicars, he sounds like a good one! That last one you had, I wouldn't dwell on anything he said, that's just my advice! Happy Easter.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter to you and yours, Kay. x
DeleteOne unhappy man in a church full of good. Hope all is well with you. This one sounds happy.
ReplyDeleteThere are unhappy souls everywhere. Sorry, he took it out on his congregation for all to see.
Thank you. I think you've hit the nail right on the head. x
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