Ever since I began here at St Paul’s, my days off were Saturday and Monday. After all, those are traditionally the days off for clergy. My supervisor has suggested that I might want to look at changing that to Friday and Saturday to give me something like a weekend. International research has shown that this is normally better for clergy wellbeing. With my wife also now having her day off on Fridays, I thought I should give it a go. It would also enable me to go away overnight, for example to Timaru, where my parents live and I have a house to attend to.

One drawback is that matters often do come up on a Friday. I could not respond to those before the Sunday.

After discussion with Vestry, I have determined that I’ll trial Friday and Saturday as my days off for the rest of the year, beginning on 3 August. Services at Parklands rest home will now be on the second Wednesday of the month. As previously, I will still be available for any urgent matters on the days off, and if any parish activities require my presence, I will also continue to be there regardless of the day of the week. However, non-urgent things could be left to the other five days of the week.