My husband and I attended a dinner for Anglican ministers and their spouses from our immediate region last night. Out of the 20 or so people who attended, I had at least 12 personal connections with:

• One lady who had been in a bible study with my grandmother for years.
• A couple who had originally come from the same church as my other grandmother and who had known me since I was tiny.
• A man who gave my dad a job about 15 years ago and met me before I was married.
• A woman who had been on a Moore College Mission to my dad's church in Gunnedah when I was in Year 12.
• A man who was in the same year at Bible college as my father.
• A woman who knows a girl with whom I went to school in Pakistan.
• Four people (at least) who had read the book I wrote.
• A couple who know my parents quite well and who are taking over a parish where my aunt and uncle used to work.
• One woman who asked me directly if I was related to said aunt (whom she knows), without knowing that we had any connection, just from my mannerisms.
• A couple whose daughter married the son of some friends of ours from Dapto.
• A man who I worked with a little at CMS.
• A couple who went to the same church as us over three years ago.
• There was only one person who I seemed to have no direct link with... but he was the son of one of the others!

Anglican circles are small.