The life of an intern

I thought it was time that I updated my blog since I have been nagging my son Matt to update his. He is, as you no doubt remember, an intern at St Aldate's Church in Oxford (apparently, someone over there is notified everytime St Aldate's is mentioned on the web... so I may mention it a few times, just so that somebody reads my blog! - Matt only found about my blog because of this feature! Ha!)

Well, I'm not quite sure what the life of a pastoral intern is supposed to be like, and sometimes it's hard to tell what exactly is different from life before being a pastoral intern, to life after becoming a pastoral intern...

As a pastoral intern I have:
my own cubicle (cell) - well, it's my own when I'm there. When I'm out of the office, it's generally up for grabs since it's the only spare cubicle with some clear space on which to work...
I have an Evanston Vineyard email address (alisond@evanstonvineyard.org)
and I have a name tag (double sided no less) with my name and title boldly emblazoned upon it... doesn't come much better than that!

As for actual duties - I have participated in many varied activities, from visiting new babies in the hospital (everyone say 'ah') to getting to sit in on the highly exclusive weekly Pastoral business meetings. Since I had to sign no documents swearing to life long secrecy of the contents of such meetings, I may therefore not be risking the life of myself or my descendents when I reliably inform you, and remember, you heard it here first, they discuss .... well... business... and since this is a church... they discuss... are you ready for this disclosure (at no personal cost to myself)... they discuss the Sunday Service! There you have it! I'm not sure what else I can tell you... I really think that the millions spent on interdenominational espionage to uncover the mysteries of the Pastoral meetings has been truly wasted.... sorry to disappoint...

I'm not sure if it's one of my internship duties, or whether I just happened to say yes to the wrong question (that happens, you know), but I am organizing the staff Christmas Party this year. It's a fine balance between making it good enough so people feel really appreciated (which they are) and not so good that I get asked to do it again...!

Talking about secrecy...my plans for the evening are closely guarded but I will let you know that if the restaurant involved returns my call, it may involve food of some sort. Watch this space if you want to know how it turns out.