Seeking salvation

Thank you, Alice Goodman, for writing such a sad, beautiful piece (“Clerical life”, October). You are not on your own in feeling this way; reading it brought me the comfort of knowing that I wasn’t alone either. It is so surreal to have to be the voice of sanity carrying out one role, while your own fears and despair simmer gently (and sometimes not so gently) in the background, sneaking out at inopportune moments.

I imagine this piece was difficult to compose, and even harder to share, but thank you again for doing it. Sometimes, I think it is only by finding solace in our shared suffering that any of this makes any sort of sense.

Verity, via the website

Thank you to Alice Goodman; I’m a priest who retired early because of burnout, and I live with the heartache of losing my father to suicide a few days after I’d been so cross with him and despaired of him. I was 17 at the time, and all I can say is that it’s Christ’s unfailing love that helps me carry that regret every day. Through Christ’s cross I have a sense of my father having forgiven me, as I have forgiven him.

Vicky Goodman, via the website

At the end of the 1980s I was a Cambridge student who ended up at Fulbourn Hospital following an overdose. I’d suffered depression since I was 12 or 13. Mental illhealth in young people is recognised now; it wasn’t then, and sadly I never received proper help until many years later.

Alice Goodman’s article has brought back many painful memories, but I am also happy to report that I am now a thriving parish priest.

Sarah, via the website