A Letter from the Rectory. November 2025.
Do you have a nickname? Mine nickname is Nick – not very imaginative I know but that’s not my fault; to be called Nicholas brings memories of being told off by my mother. Another name that has been around for me is ‘Nic the Vic’, which started with my visits to the primary school with the children 20+ years ago and has stuck as those children have grown up.
Sometimes people get random names from their time in the forces because there were too many people called ‘Dave’, sometimes it is the ironic one that stick – ‘Shorty’ for someone who is very tall, or ‘Slim’ for a larger built person.
There is a person in the bible whose name was Joseph who got the nickname ‘Barnabas’ which means ‘Son of encouragement’. What a fantastic thing to be called. To be known in such positive terms – this is a person who encourages others. He was around as the Church started to form and you can read about him in The Acts of the Apostles. He was born in Cyprus, a Jewish person trained as a Levite, a companion of Paul and travelled all around the world sharing the Gospel.
He was not afraid to take risks and brought Paul into the heart of the Christian disciples in Jerusalem when Paul was still known as a persecutor of Christians; and he sided with Mark against Paul later on and stood up for the weaker person, giving Mark a second chance.
Just search for ‘Barnabas’ and see what else comes up.
I guess he was not born as an encourager but got the title because of what he said and did, because of what he choose not to say and do. We have that choice day by day.
Facebook (and the other quick chat sites) is so often used to spread the negative things about people and we can so easily join in (or imply our agreement by saying nothing). Is it possible to stand out from the crowd and say something encouraging, to post against the flow? Or to start saying positive things about people to their face, building them up, increasing confidence. It needs to be true of course but there is always something we can say to make another person’s day.
I would love to be able to nickname 100’s of people on the peninsula as ‘Barnabas’. Give it a try.
Nic the Vic
Nick
Team Vicar - Tavistock Area Mission Community.