From today’s Church Times comes this story about the Bishop of St. Albans, here in England.
HE LISTS gardening as one of his hobbies, but the green-fingered prowess of the Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, so impressed onlookers recently that he was given the chance to turn it into a full-time job.
Dr Smith told his diocesan synod last weekend that, while visiting an aunts house, he decided to sort out her somewhat messy garden. He spent the morning gardening, and, while he was working, noticed a woman walking past a couple of times and watching his progress. Then, he said, the same womans head popped up over the wall and said: Excuse me, but Im looking for a gardener.
He said: So I suddenly feel my prospects are looking up, but I said to her: Thank you, its very kind of you, but actually this isnt my full-time job. I have a full-time job.
She says: Are you sure you cant fit it in?
I said: No, no, Im sorry.
And she said: What do you do?
I looked up, and said: Well, Im the Bishop of St Albans.
And she looked at me in total disbelief, and said: Huh, well, Im the Queen of Sheba.
The anecdote was greeted with laughter by synod members.
Dr Smith said: You just cant make it up, can you? Well, you dont need to, when things like that happen.
A diocesan spokesman said that Dr Smith was a keen and accomplished gardener, and had transformed part of the garden at his home since he arrived in St Albans in 2009. He does say that you can tell a lot about someones ministry by the state of their garden.