‘You’re downsizing, are you?’ So said a few people when I told them the difficulties we were having disposing of all our stuff from the Vicarage and moving into a 2 up 2 down retirement home. ‘Well, kind of.’ I answered. ‘It isn’t exactly a lifestyle choice. We have to move.’ ‘Really? That’s not fair,’ said one, ‘like farm workers in tied cottages!’ Well, not exactly, either. The church doesn’t see you homeless. An amazing number of people, however, – even in churches- had no idea about clergy housing.
So, looking back about 10 weeks after leaving the Vicarage, what was it like? Well, by the time we finally emptied the Vicarage on Oct 23rd, we’d been at it for over 6 months. Six months of selling stuff on auction sites, (very little), giving away to individuals ( a lot), giving to charity shops (masses) and way too many trips to the tip. At the start it was measured, by the end it was desperate and not that well considered.
Basically, it’s down to Parkinson’s Law, which is strictly about work expanding to fill the time allotted to it, but can also be applied to stuff. Stuff expands to fill the space available, which, in a Vicarage means 4 bedrooms (5 in the previous parish), a study, two bathrooms, utility room, garage, conservatory. When I was a young priest people who wanted to get rid of stuff looked at our house and thought, ‘they’ll have space’ which of course we did, and we were glad of that wardrobe, that sofa, that guest bed. 20 years on in 2013, with children left home, we should have thought about disposing of some of this furniture but, because we were moving to a similar sized house, we just transferred it across.
10 years later, and the chickens have come home to roost. Moving into a nice, brand new but very small home, we had very little space for our old furniture and possessions (including hundreds of books), much of which was unsuitable anyway. So we got rid of most of it and bought new furniture appropriate to such dwellings. I gave away most of my theological books, to individuals, parishioners, students- near and far, and the ever hungry Oxfam bookshop. I have a few left, some in storage, but I couldn’t easily tell you where!
Some people have asked me how that feels. Is that a great liberation? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss my book-lined study occasionally, but on the whole, yes. I hadn’t read most of the books for years, and the internet has replaced many books of reference anyway. In my youth I was very drawn to the life and lifestyle of Francis of Assisi, and even thought of becoming a friar at one point. Francis is famous for casting off his beautiful and expensive clothes in Assisi town square in front of the Bishop, being thereafter clothed in a simple brown habit. But he didn’t like books either, which he saw as cluttering up both space and his brothers’ minds when they should be out spreading the Gospel and serving the poor.
He also called his brothers minores, ‘lesser’. ‘The friars dedicated themselves to live first among themselves as a fraternity and second with those in the universal fraternity of creatures among whom they chose to dwell and work.’ (Francis of Assisi: his life, vision and companions, Michael Cusato 2023). In other words, the early Franciscans didn’t just help the poor, they chose to live amongst them. The 2 lovely Vicarages in which I lived for 31 years were not purpose-built and adjacent to the church, but large houses in the streets removed from the churches, next to other houses of similar size. That meant that our neighbours belonged to the propertied middle classes. I often used to find myself apologizing to wedding or baptism couples from the poorer parts of the parishes where I served, saying, ‘It doesn’t belong to me, you know,’ when they said, ‘Wow, what a place you have!’ I now find myself apologising to some of my middle class friends that our new house, is ‘very small you know.’ Really, I should be glad to be living amongst people of more modest status. Why should clergy be amongst the comfortable middle classes, when their Master had ‘no place to lay his head?’ Our new house has got everything we need, and will cost us a lot less to run when things have settled down, but it’s very small.
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a culture shock, nor that I missed (sometimes acutely) the parishes, the people, and the position of being Vicar, at the centre of things, and yes the Vicarage. But I don’t miss some of the baggage – physical or otherwise- that came with it. It’s a new start, in a new place, and a new attitude. Don’t look back!
Hugh's Views 