‘How are you settling in?’ – that’s the question I am being asked daily by the many friendly people I have met since beginning as your new Canon Pastor and I can happily respond each time ‘very well thank you.’ It helps to have a husband who has ensured all our boxes are unpacked and the pictures are hung on the wall, but alongside making our new house feel like a home, settling into Ripon has also involved participating in the most important week of the church year. Starting on Palm Sunday and journeying through the liturgy of Holy week and on into the joy of Easter was certainly a very busy way to begin ministry here but it has also helped immerse me in the riches of the worship of this stunning Cathedral and to see, if not yet meet in person, the many people who connect with this ancient place of worship.

Feeling at home in a community takes time, there are the practical things like learning who sells the best fish and chips, where to walk the dogs, and all those essentials like finding a doctor and crucially for me a hairdresser!

But alongside the everyday mechanics of our lives, what really makes us feel at home in a community is the people that we meet and the relationships we form. I have been grateful to have received a warm welcome from everyone I have met over these past few weeks and that has certainly helped me to settle in, but I also know it will take time to build relationships. Getting to know one another, sharing stories about who we are beyond surface pleasantries is something that cannot be rushed and in my experience is often best done in the context of hospitality, both given and received. The well-known phrase ‘more tea vicar?’ has its roots in the reality that for parish priests, and indeed for Cathedral clergy, our bread-and-butter ministry is in getting to know people. Being alongside often at times of great joy or sorrow but also for the everyday in between moments and what better way to do that than over a cup of tea.

The sharing of food and drink is a central part of the Christian tradition, we gather each week around the sacramental meal of Holy Communion but just as important is the gathering around the refreshment table after the service. Two tables, Christ present at both.

In this Easter season as we hear the resurrection accounts in the gospels of how Jesus reveals himself to his friends in the breaking of bread and, as we shall hear on Sunday morning, through breakfast on the beach, I am reminded once again of just how important the invitation to have a cup of tea with someone truly is and I look forward to sharing many of these with you over the coming months. (In case you were wondering, I take mine strong, very little milk and of course it has to be Yorkshire!)

Canon Wendy