Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna

Day 6 – Tuesday after 1st Sunday of Lent 

To Read:

Our street, twenty houses big, was a regular United Nations;  the only colours in kids we didn’t have were green ones and blue ones, we had nearly every other colour.  Our street was a nice street.  Nobody had any money, but in all the years I lived there, I can never remember anyone’s front-door being shut in the day.  time, or, for that matter, for most of the night either.  It was a nice street to live in and all the people were friendly, but after a few weeks of Anna the street and the people in it took on a buttercup glow.  

Even our boss-eyed cat, Bossy, mellowed.  Bossy was a fighting tabby with lace-edged ears who regarded all humans as inferiors, but under Anna’s influence Bossy started to stay at home more often and very soon treated Anna as an equal.  I could stand by the back-door and yell myself silly for Bossy, but he wouldn’t budge for me, but for Anna, well, that was a different thing.  One call and he simply materialized with an idiot grin on his face.

To Reflect:

During my time as a vicar I have had complaints lodged against me on several occasions.  I don’t think this is uncommon.  If we are about the business of pastoral care at the edges of life and at the same time being a prophetic voice this should not surprise us.  Egos will meet and clash, and there is nothing as self-righteous as an ego which leads with the words, ‘this is the will of the LORD’ and  ‘the Bible clearly says!’  And vicars are not immune from these tropes…

However the most unusual complaint we had made against us was when, a young couple with a new baby, were living at the Federal Theological Seminary in Imbali Township near Pietermaritzburg.  FedSem was an ecumenical seminary in a Black Township during the years of Apartheid.  The majority of the students and staff where Black and there were a few of us who were White, Asian, or of mixed Race (all these classifications where critically important to the architects of Apartheid with even your ID number revealing your ‘race’).

We, a couple from suburban Johannesburg, were used to locking the door of our flat at the end of each day – as we had done all of our married life – but this simple act led to a complaint.  Well more of a concern.  Other students spoke earnestly about their concern for us to the Principal.  We had not realised that in Township life doors where only ever locked if nefarious deeds were happening behind them.  Our habit of locking our door was for them a matter for prayer and care.  Once this was explained to us, we stopped doing it.  This did lead to further challenges as fellow students started entering our flat unannounced whilst Lesley-Anne was nursing our first-born child!  But this too was resolved and we treasure the memories of a place which, despite the hatred of Apartheid felt a little bit like the ‘United Nations’ street on which Anna and Fynn lived.

It may not be possible to leave doors unlocked where you live (I do hope that at least your local church is unlocked outside the times of worship) but we can at least try to have unlocked hearts.

We have recently moved into our tenth vicarage which is in a cul-de-sac at the end of which is the parish church and the local pub.  It is a perfect place to try and spread a ‘buttercup glow’ amongst its residents.  It will take time, our vicarage has been rented out for a while and has had a series of tenants, but we are already enjoying the daily chats with fellow dog walkers and pub goers, the postie and the delivery drivers, care workers and those for whom they care sitting at their windows seeking acknowledgement to their waves at passersby.

And the cost of spreading this glow?  The price of welcoming everyone’s pet and not just our own very barky rescue dog?  Absolutely nothing!  Yes, there are teething pains, especially when every inch of the roads are parked up with the Chelsea Tractors of parents on the school run.  But even this has a dividend as the street is filled with the sound of happy children twice a day.

All in all building an open and welcoming place comes at very little inconvenience and its rewards far surpass any irritation that may bring.

I suppose Anna with her indominable spirit and desire to walk closely with Mister God, would still have made an impact on those around her if she continued to live in the shadows of the Baker’s shop.  However, once given the space of her ‘United Nations’ street she blossomed.  I wonder how many people in our own neighbourhoods are waiting to blossom as well but only need us to unlock our hearts and give them the space and opportunity to do so?

 

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

If you have enjoyed reading them please make a donation to The Clergy Support Trust who provided a  generous grant to help me find the space to compose them.

Acknowledgements:

Quotes from the book ‘Mister God, This is Anna’ are Copyright © Fynn 1975

Illustrations from the book ‘Mister God, This is Anna’ and ‘Anna and the Black Knight’ are Copyright © Pappas 1975

Psalm Prayers from Common Worship: Daily Prayer, material from which is included here, is copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2005 and published by Church House Publishing

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.  Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

These Reflections, ‘Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.