Bill Donoghue reflects on his deacon year
On 28 August Bill will be ordained presbyter for the curacy of Willowfield.
Parish life is always busy and whilst one’s work is never done, it is has been an enormous privilege to see how God is moving in this community and in the lives of the people within it. Within the course of the last year I have experienced the highs and lows of parish life, from the sadness of taking the funeral of a mother of two young children to the joys of seeing people married, babies being born (my own included) and people coming to faith in Christ. What I have been struck by is that in the midst of the highs and lows there is the constant of God’s grace. Even for those who have been mourning over the course of the last year there has been little moments of God’s grace breaking through and offering fresh hope and strength. In the times of celebration such as weddings or baptism again we see God’s grace being revealed. I have come to realise that even the simple acts of hospitality that we offer others as a church is a revelation of God’s grace.
It is my hope and prayer that as I continue my curacy that increasingly we will encounter these windows of grace breaking into people’s lives and might have an increasing awareness of all that God is doing in this community. It is undoubtedly a wonderful calling to be able to minister God’s grace people.