The Big Meeting .... !!

Please pray for us as we meet the leaders of our former church at 9pm tonight.

They will turn on the charm to try to win us back. But will they actually admit they were wrong? (Maybe.) Will they actually apologise? (Maybe.) Can the come up with a workable proposal for us to return? (probably not.)

What are their motives? genuine love? Embarrasment at losing a high profile figure form their church? Afraid of what we might say about them?

It's actually very hard to pitch it right.

We definitely want to leave. Even if they apologise in sack cloth and ashes, sack the sunday school superintendant and reinstate my wife, we will still not trust them anymore, nor the women who should be my wife's deputies but who we believe whispered against her. (We know most people loved her work, but the two nearest deputies seemed to have their own agendas and the church leadership always undermined her.)

Also, if I transfer my readership to another church I would have to negotiate with the diocese, and that would involve telling them why I have left, and much as I am cross with my old vicar I don't want to get him in toruble with his boss. Neither do I want to say things to the congregation which would undermine his leadership, but also our friends deserve to know why we have left them. It's a political minefield. I have no political skills.

I suppose my ideal outcome from the meeting is a reconciliation on a personal level, so that we can go to another church with their blessing and bump into them in the future without too much awkwardness.