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Moseley Chimes
April 2008
It’s rude to mention a lady’s age, so I won’t. I’ll simply make the point that Joan’s age must surely be the only reason why she is formally retiring from our ministry team with effect from the end of March.
Unlike some clerics you or I may have known over the years, there’s no doubt that Joan’s mental faculties and her pastoral skills have remained undimmed with the passage of time. As a result, in the months to come, there will be several churches up and down the Birmingham Diocese, particularly those going through an interregnum, who are going to be blessed by her presence among them as a guest celebrant and preacher. On such occasions, our loss will be their gain because we at St Mary’s and St Anne’s will miss not having Joan ‘up front’ on Sundays, just as much, I suspect, as she is going to miss us.
Joan’s ministry among us goes back many years, but it’s still only part of her Christian journey. However, through her sermons, we’ve often been permitted glimpses of the earlier stages of her story (her Baptist roots, her time working in insurance, her first meeting with Harry on a train going into London…) before we, in turn, became part of that story. This new chapter opened on the day when Joan first accompanied Harry to Evensong at St Mary’s, Harry’s church, in June 1970.
Since then, Joan’s Christian ministry has progressed and developed, firstly as a Reader, then a Deaconess, a Deacon and finally, as a Priest, and all this has taken place here, in her adopted church in Moseley. We’ve rejoiced with her at every upward stage of that journey, but we’ve also wept with her when a Church of England technicality, cruelly, delayed her priesting.
Many have cause to be deeply grateful to Joan for her love and pastoral concern, because, whenever she is informed that someone known to her has been taken to hospital or had a serious mishap, she has been known to rush to their side quicker than any doctor or ambulance driver.
For many years, her ministry has been supported by her work as a Hospital Chaplain and the links she has built up with doctors and ward sisters have not only opened doors to medical information but provided her with an opportunity to suggest ways in which a patient’s aftercare treatment could be improved.
But, of course, it’s in the life of the church that most of us will have experienced Joan’s caring ministry, and yet few will be aware of much that Joan has done in recent times. It’s impossible to list everything but I can think of the monthly services at Dowells and the Lench’s, Easter and Christmas Communion services in our Residential Care Homes, her leadership of the Tuesday prayer group, the confirmation classes she has led, the recruitment and organisation of several generations of young Servers, buying and wrapping Christmas presents for the residents at our Care Homes, organising the distribution of Harvest gifts. Have I forgotten anything? Yes, I’m sure I have.
I expect we’ve all got our own special memories of Joan, the things she’s said and the ways in which she’s helped you (often with only God being there to witness the moment). We’ll remember her sermons and the ways in which Joan has highlighted ‘God at Work’ in the ordinary and the commonplace, and we’ll remember those times we’ve smiled as Joan has said “But, and there’s always a ‘but’…”.
And for me, I’ll never forget all those times when Joan has presided at a service of Holy Communion and begun the Eucharistic Prayer by expansively throwing her arms wide with the joyous words, “The Lord is here!”.
Surely that action above all symbolises the tremendous sense of privilege and joy Joan has always felt when celebrating communion among us. God Bless you, Joan, and thank you. May the Lord indeed “be with you” as you move on to the next stage of your journey.