Yesterday I spent most of the day at the College of St Barnabas in Lingfield, Surrey. I probably spent 20 minutes less of the day than intended because someone had turned the countryside signposts around and I kept driving the wrong way down leafy country lanes. It was very beautiful but very frustrating.

Whenever I use the word ‘college’ in relation to St Barnabas, people ask about the curriculum and how many students there are. But this is not that sort of a college. St Barnabas was set up a century ago and still fulfils its purpose of providing retirement care for clergy and their spouses. Many residents are elderly and some bereaved of their husband or wife. There is an excellent provision of nursing care for those who are ill or in declining health. Current residents include the wonderful John Stott and Tom Smail, both of whom I was able to speak with yesterday.

What strikes me here is that there is a collection of elderly clergy from across the spectrum who live, eat, worship and serve together according to their ability. But they bring together the accumulated experience and wisdom of decades of service. I met a couple of bishops and other clergy who served overseas and retired here with almost nothing to their name. Their’s was a life of sacrifice and self-giving with no expectation of reward. There are evangelicals, catholics and some who don’t know where they stand. It is a wonderful mixture of what a real church is: great variety, but a common life as Christians.

In a culture that worships youth, beauty and success, here is a community that bears all the power and dignity of age, the beauty of common discipleship and the success of ‘resting’ after a lifetime of service to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I came away – again – humbled by having been in their company and feeling that I have an awful long way still to travel before I get to where some of them already are.

College of St Barnabas