A Retired Rector's Reflections

I retired as Rector of St Chrysostom’s, Manchester in October 2022. The photo above shows the congregation at my last mass. I’d been the parish priest for 24 years and I had many, many wonderful times there, and met a huge variety of people from different backgrounds, ages and cultures, both in the church and also in the parish. It was truly enriching and I will always treasure the memories. Inevitably retiring was not easy, and moving home, as priests have to when retiring from parish ministry, meant I had many adjustments to make. A few years ago I overheard two retired men talking about retiring and one remarked that it took him two years to adjust, his friend replied ‘Is that all!’ It does take time.

Retirement has brought with it new opportunities, and a time to reflect. I’ve decided to use this blog as one way of reflecting, and it may be, if there are any readers, they may be interested to read the reflections, and, if they wish comment, or add to the reflections.