Yesterday was the first session of my last term at Harris Manchester College Oxford, where I am training to be a Unitarian minister. My two fellow students, Jim and Sheena, will be carrying on next year, and I felt quite sad to realise that I would no longer be with them. When I got home last night, there was an e-mail waiting from my Baptist friend Jennie, whose training to be a Baptist minister is likewise drawing to a close, and she was feeling sad and a little wistful too.
When I first heard that I had been accepted for ministry training, I was thrilled, but also quite apprehensive. A friend who is a minister warned "it will change you" and she was right. It is almost impossible to describe how, but now, nearly two years later, I do feel like a different person. I'm looking at the world from a different space, and it fills me with awe and gratitude and not a little wonder. I feel so blessed in having the opportunity to share the amazing faith that is Unitarianism with others, and I pray, that in however small a way, I will be able to keep the flame alight in the years to come.
And I am sure that you will cause the light of that flame to shine upon all those around you.
ReplyDelete