He lets me wallow, bending toward the briefcase at his feet. I’ve managed not to focus on this briefcase but I know he picked it up from the grass by the bottom of the ladder, where he’d left it prior to his climb. It’s dark dull black with a gold-colored hasp and, where one might find initials, a gold cross. In a doctor’s hand this sort of bag is an instrument of comfort, but there’s no comfort here. “Ah. Here we are.” Out of the briefcase comes something unpleasantly similar to the manila folder he has so recently derided. He hands it to me and I open it to find a single sheet of paper bearing, in fresh black typescript, a list of three items spaced at wide intervals down the page.

1. Pastoral Ministry
2. Organization/Administration
3. Mission

I place the list on the table. “What is this?”

“It’s a prompt, dear boy. When you write your report, simply group your responses under these headings.” Frobisher leans forward, parks his heavy arms on the table. “Look, Acton. I’ll be candid. I can see how this happened. It’s a new post, you have a hundred calls on your time, and there’s that blessed blank page staring up at you. Anyone can suffer a bout of writer’s block.”

I pour milk into my cup of tea. In the short interval since I served Frobisher, the milk has turned and it splits into tiny white worms. Like the milk, my thoughts curdle and spin. Frobisher continues, unperturbed by my lack of response.

“I’ve had very good news of you, both from your curate Clive Perry and from your Parish Council. Administratively you are diligent. In your pastoral ministry, again, impressive and energetic.” He leans slightly on the adjectives to indicate that they’re Clive’s choice and not his.

“That’s very kind of Clive,” I manage to say before Frobisher grinds on.

“Turning now to this last element . . .” His forefinger squashes down on the word Mission. “Mr. Perry has pointed out, very reasonably, that no one would expect leaps and bounds on this front. But what I do expect of you, at this juncture, now that you’ve got the measure of the place, is some views. Some ideas on how this gathering-in might be accomplished. I need not remind you that you are, of course, not simply priest of a congregation but vicar to the parish.”

“That’s true. The whole parish, whether they come to church or not.”

“Exactly. That is why we reach out, after all. To bring people into a community which draws its strength, its life, from communal worship and fellowship in the Lord. To seek out those who have strayed from His ways like lost sheep.”