The folk at Come Dine with Me left a message on the blog last week:
Come Dine With Me are casting in Wolverhampton! Want the chance to show off your culinary skills and win £1000? Apply now! Email rebecca.dibley@itv.com.
But I don’t think they actually read the blog or they’d know that the chances of me hosting a civilised dinner at the Vicarage are completely zippo. I can’t think what the viewers (and other diners) would make of meal in our house. The food is generally pretty tasty (tho’ presentation leaves much to be desired) but it’s the interruptions that might prove challenging – our front doorbell rarely has a quiet night.
It might be gentlemen of the road wanting feeding, laundry doing or lifts to Birmingham, children wanting garden time or bikes mended, others in need of cups of sugar, help with the electric or merely calling to let us know about something going on in the parish. Sometimes it’s members of the Vicar’s small group coming over to study the bible, or anxious teenagers coming for extra forms for their parents to sign for a youth group outing. Or maybe it would be the chap with the small building company who brings us old fence panels as fuel for our woodburning stoves, keeping us warm and saving him landfill charges.
And that’s just the front door. The phone sometimes goes too… So I don’t think I’ll be responding to Rebecca Dibley. If you’re near Wolves you could though.
The Vicar's Wife 
Oh how I identify with this! Door bells and phone!
We have a fairly new Manse,a 3 bed bungalow, the old Manse an imposing 6 bed building two doors down which houses a just a couple who are seldom at home,was fine ,if not a bit chilly. I am not sure what the congregation envisaged using the new one for. With our family of four we are bursting at the seams,a meeting in the living room really needs a screen and loud speakers in the garden as more than ten people crammed in makes it feel like the Underground in rush hour!
Go on – surprise the world and show them that vicarage families are actually quite normal but have to deal with exceptional circumstances. With so many callers at the door, you wouldn’t have to lay on any entertainment. Perhaps you could suggest it was a ‘come and share’ supper and avoid the cooking as well :).
Good for you! Being hospitable is such a great witness and us Christians get enough bad press, perhaps it could help!
You might not wine the covetted Channel 4 prize, but one day you will get the prize of King Jesus saying ‘Come dine with ME’
And then it will have been worth it all
🙂
This Vicar’s Wife was invited to appear on ‘Wife Swap’ a few years ago. Although she was tempted to show the world how normal vicarage families are, her very wise husband suggested she might be placed with a family that compromised her Christian principles and she would be heavily ‘edited’.
He also pointed out that the whole idea of swapping wives wasn’t normal Christian practice!
I think we both made the right decision but it would be great to see normal Christian families in-situ.