Encouraged to blog

On Friday, I joined over fifty other anglican clergymen (and a handful of women) at Ecclesiastical's reception and ministry bursary awards. We met in the chapter house of St Paul's (externally drab but inwardly rather pleasant). Shaking clerical hands and describing the work being sponsored was Nick Baines, right reverently the Bishop of Croydon.

His encouragement for us sabbatical taking vicars was enthusiastic. In particular, he wanted to know what we'd been up to when we completed our adventures. The scale of ambition of the projects ranged considerably. One person is determined to master the fiendishly complicated language of Mandarin in three months. Another wishes to learn to play the Leicestershire small pipe. A couple of people are exploring the potential of the church's role in the Olympics, one by visiting Athens, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Los Angeles. Another is exploring mission to white working-class men. There are plans with specific, tightly-focussed areas of enquiry and some rather less defined projects that look like a kind of holy 'pottering about'.

Of course, pottering about isn't necessarily a bad thing. I shall be doing plenty of that in the months after Easter. Sometimes, moments that are unsought and unintended turn out to be the most significant of all.

I admire the generosity of spirit of those who allocate these annual awards. This year some £60,000 is being donated by Ecclesiastical, with no promise of a return on investment. The best they can hope for, in terms of feedback, is that we'll write something along the way.

And that feels like a reasonable bargain to me. Writing will require that we preserve the gleanings of our endeavours, for the education, edification or amusement of others.

Nick Baines is one of the CofE's few blogging bishops (good on him, see his blog here). I'm encouraged to keep blogging myself, despite the teasing that it's drawn from clergy colleagues (not so much from lay people) over the last three years. I've decided to alter my plans slightly and so instead of beginning a brand new blog, I've renamed this existing one and am about to go public with it.

Originally I used the perhaps too-clever title of "Covering my tracks" for a blog for my own personal use, to record notes and thoughts prior to launching a brand new blog for the Walking Home project. My thinking was that I could use "Covering my tracks" experimentally, to see what worked and to cull its best bits for a more public, more polished affair. But I haven't really got the time for all the messing about and besides, looking back on the rough bits of this blog (feel free to browse the archives, you'll find plenty that's rough) its provisional feel is quite charming.

So I've re-hashed the logo, and given it a new name. "Walking Home" feels less subterfugal* than "covering my tracks" and says what I'm actually preparing for. So, do enjoy the posts, feel free to offer comments and I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do, but without the blisters.

*Not sure that 'subterfugal' is a real word but if it isn't, it should be, don't you think?