having other people take over your lounge

We are very fortunate in that my wife's curate job comes with a house that the local parish own but let us live in rent free.  But of course there is an expectation that it will be used for meetings and groups connected with my wife's role in the church.

So my advice is before you move into your curate's house think carefully about how you can arrange the various rooms to accommodate large groups and meetings whilst retaining somewhere for the rest of the family to be.  In our curates house the previous curate had used a long lounge as just a lounge- and the other ground floor room as their dining room (also on the ground floor was a WC and small kitchen).

The trouble with that type of arrangement is that if we'd not changed it then when large groups used the lounge the rest of the family would be banished to a not very comfortable dining room or upstairs into our bedrooms - neither a particularly entertaining or social option.

Instead what we did is as follows ...

- we laid out the rear end of the long lounge so it had two sofas and a TV and the front end to have a folding dining table.  

- This gave us a family space to relax and somewhere to eat as a family as well.  

- If a smaller group needed to meet in the lounge they could use the sofas and some folding chairs as necessary without moving anything.  

- If larger groups needed to meet in the lounge we could fold down the dining table and push one sofa back into the dining space giving even more room for folding chairs for seating.

 - The previous dining room was set out as a snug with a sofa, coffee table and TV/PC on a narrow desk.  This gave myself and our daughters a place to escape too that allowed us to watch TV or work on the PC without disturbing the meeting.

Thinking carefully before we moved in  - about how to arrange the various rooms to allow us to accommodate large groups  - whilst having a comfortable room for the rest of the family at the same time - really did pay dividends.

Having your own social circle

some of Apple's fashion collection from 1986

One piece of advice for a Rev's husband I've read somewhere is to join some sort of club - so you can build up your own circle of friends locally.

And I can see some of the sense in doing that - so that as well as friends at work (hopefully!)  - you've got friends near where you live.

But what the advice doesn't seem to take account of is the temporary nature of a posting as a curate.


As you may remember - we moved to a new market town for the curate posting my wife got.  But my wife is only going to be a curate for 3 or so years.  After that - assuming her training incumbent and the bishop give her the all clear - she'll be free to apply for her 1st substantive post somewhere in our current - or any other - diocese.

So ever since we moved I've known that we're only going to be here for 36 months or so.  Now of course that hasn't stopped us making some new friends - but the friendships are mostly with people in the church.

For me it didn't seem worthwhile getting involved in some local club - only to move on again after a short while.  I do sometimes wonder what Rev husbands in similar positions do.  In this diocese the Rev's Partners organisation doesn't much help in making contact with other Rev husbands.  Its still very much a Rev's wife dominated undertaking.

Anybody care to share their approach to the temporary nature of the curate posting - from a Rev's husband perspective?

#Lent & #Easter - various clips that maybe useful

In a departure om what I normally blog about I thought I'd do a post with the various clips I've used in church social media posts around Lent/Easter over the years.  I hope some of them prove useful to you.

Ash Wednesday & Lent

In 2 minutes



Lenten reflection & an old story with fresh eyes 



What do you need to make good?





Bible

Mark's Gospel - read by David Suchet over 2 hours - the actual gospel reading starts at the 8 minute second mark

t

Easter

Holy Week in 2 minutes




The Easter story via social media


Jesus and his life

Follow



Who is Jesus


I AM | Series Promo from NewSpring Creative on Vimeo.

somebody else's decoration

When you move into a curates house - which in our case was for free - one of your immediate reactions is to be thankful for the tremendous perk that is.

And I know from my work that the value of that perk is easily equal to some of the packages ex-pats get for working in the UK.

But one of the disadvantage is that you can't do a lot about the colour scheme - walls - curtains - ceilings - that you inherit.

When we moved into the curate's house my wife got with her job the parish, (who owned the property), arranged to paint the place in some neutral colours (they supplied the labour we paid for the paint).

But what we didn't pay to change was the carpets - because given we're only in the house for 3 or 4 years it didn't seem worthwhile.

Which means every now and then you notice the extreme colour clash between the neutral walls/ceilings and the remaining - and worn - carpet.

A 1st world problem if ever there was one