The last 2 days have been busy!

Yesterday the Initial Stationing Committee completed its work, matching next September’s Probationers to their appointments or ‘stations.’

British Methodist understanding of ordained ministry is that it is itinerant; ministers move to a different appointment every few years.

So we speak of circuits rather than parishes, the former term implying a greater sense of movement than the latter.  In addition, we speak of ministers being ‘stationed to a circuit’ i.e. being sent by the Methodist Conference for a fixed period of time, usually 5 years, to work in a particular appointment.

It feels to me that the Committee  achieved its aim: to do our best to make the best matches between circuits and student ministers as a whole.

This means that each person may not necessarily receive the absolute ‘best match’ for them but rather that across the 47 appointments or so the whole…