By the time this article appears it will be exactly three years since I arrived in Hampstead Parish Church, and my curacy will officially have ended. I thought I would look back at the article I wrote for the July/August 2013 magazine when I introduced myself to see what I said about my hopes for the coming three years. I find that I was looking forward to walks on the Heath – and I have indeed had many such walks, often to Kenwood for a sandwich at lunchtime and a few quiet moments watching the ducks on the lake – and often with a sermon simmering at the back of my mind. I was also looking forward to the music and liturgy. I have not been disappointed, although singing Evensong with a professional choir seemed daunting at first. I soon learned that nothing I could do would put them off, which was sort of reassuring. My hobbies, which I told you about, have had rather less attention in the last three years!
There have also been so many new experiences – my first baptisms and funerals; then my ordination as priest followed by my first celebration of the Eucharist, and my first wedding. Each one of these seemed at the time like a major threshold to be crossed. Just as significantly, I have got to know so many new people, some of them briefly at a point of need in their lives, others over a longer period. It is an enormous privilege to stand at the altar rail at Communion having been welcomed into the lives of so many. Thank you for your welcome, your kindness and your support for me and for Simon in so many ways.
Before this begins to sound like a leaving speech, I am of course staying on until some time in 2017 with the hope that by the time I leave a new Vicar will have arrived. In my sermon for Ascension Day I set out some of my hopes for the period of the interregnum. We tend to be a very busy church, but I hoped that we would be able to allow this period of waiting to be waiting. That It might give us the opportunity to let go of the past where we need to, and to listen to one another and to God so that we might be ready to go forward together when the time comes. I hoped for a time of rest and reflection, space and silence when we might discover anew our need of one another and of God.
By the time this article appears we will, astonishingly, be two months into the interregnum. It has been a time of hard work and of some adjustment as our Churchwardens Angela and Jon, Revd Jan Rushton and I and our Readers Handley and Andrew work together as a team to ensure that our usual services and activities continue. I look forward to much more learning over the coming months as we work together, and I am very grateful for your continuing support.
I wish you all a good summer, with time for rest and refreshment, time to slow down and reflect and time just to be.
With my love and prayers,
Mother Diana writes
Diana Young