When my wife first started exploring whether she was being called to be a priest we'd lived in a village for about 12 years.
Having moved there from a south London suburb we'd enjoyed the more friendly atmosphere villages often generate.
And with a school and church in the village we quickly made contact with others - particularly with those who had children of a similar age.
Over time those contacts became good friends - as our children went through school and life events together.
So when we moved out o the village to the place my other half was going to be a curate we wondered how well we'd manage to keep in touch with our old friends in the previous village.
Of course social media has helped a bit on this - as it does with keeping contact with others who are abroad.
And as we're only an hour or so drive from our previous village its not to hard to drive over.
So what we've found works best is arranging to meet every 4 months or so at a pub midway between us and our old village for a lunch, some drink and a natter.
I know my wife has also found it helpful to keep in contact with old friends who knew here before she started putting a collar on the wrong way. They have a certain distance from her day to day experiences now which - I think - is helpful.
And although we have made friends in the community where she is doing her curacy - that friendship is different in its characteristics.
Partly - and obviously - because the length of the friendships with those she has met as a curate is shorter.
But also because its a different type of friendship - akin in a way I think to the type of friendship you might have with work colleagues.
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