Well, the end is nigh. It’s been a surprisingly busy last week for me with meetings about university preachers and Radcliffe square vehicular access as well as having to think what to say on Sunday. Annette’s been visiting our house in Islip transferring clumps of our favourite plants in Norham Gardens to the borders there whilst also encouraging the builders to get a move on.

I’m going to miss writing regular sermons and even writing this weekly ‘Epistle’. I know I have followers around the world; not many, it’s true, but several who often respond to what I have said. Last week Robin Rotman, a Rhodes Scholar from ten years back, wrote from the USA to say how she reads the Epistle and how much she would have liked to be in church this Sunday. I hope to continue to write occasional blogs on my personal website (brianmountford.com) and I know I shall need a bit of discipline to do so without the promptings of our admirable administrator, Ana-Maria. Of late I have felt confident enough to be more controversial and one of my great regrets is that I pulled my punches for so long. In a church where theological caution seems to be a virtue and in which the bishops are constrained by a kind of cabinet solidarity requiring them to toe the line, it’s dangerous for a clergyperson to speak out unless they don’t care about their career. All I can say is that most of my career has been at St Mary’s, after much shorter spells in London and Cambridge, and, although my early years here were not without difficulty, I can look back and say that thirty years in Oxford has been a delight and there is nowhere else I would rather have been. Without tugging on your heart strings, I would say that now I lose my job, my house and my community; and it is this latter which is the biggest blow. It’s time I had a rest from the day to day running of this great institution, we have a wonderful house in Islip to move to, but I shall miss you, the Sunday morning congregation, more than anything. At least I leave on a high: a growing church, a successful enterprise, and such talent and dedication amongst you all. Thank you.

Actually this may not be my last epistolary hurrah, because I shall probably want to look back on Sunday in the cool light of my new life.