Every four or five months I spend quite a lot of time (10 – 12 hours) sorting out the rota.

This involves:
– listing the Sundays for the coming months [easy];
– listing the services to take place on each Sunday in each of four different churches (big church has four Sunday services, one church has two, the other two have one each – seven or eight per Sunday) [doesn’t change much – fairly easy, bar festivals];
– listing who is going to take each service [this is the hard bit].

I need to try and reconcile the desires of the ministers; the desires of the parishes; my own sense of who needs to be where; and – so far as I can – my own desires and spiritual needs. I’ve got a basic pattern in my head, which is where I begin from – and then real life takes over and it becomes a question of finding out if there is anyone at all who can cover an Evensong when most ministers are away and I’m committed to a different church….

I do enjoy the process though, despite the struggle. Appeals to the nerd in me I guess. And today I publish the rota through to after Easter. Hooray!