That was the week that was

WonderfulVicar being on a richly deserved holiday, this was the week when all sorts of things, both good and bad, came out of the woodwork. Writing it down in bullets it just looks mad and unmanageable, but actually there were quite a few glimpses of God as we went along, and I think my assorted commenters are quite right that the death of the church has been exaggerated.

Points along the way included

• Surreal juxtaposition number 1 – on Monday….from funeral to 50th birthday party for Ch K’s Brownies….Brownies don’t seem to have changed since my mum was, briefly, a tawny owl back in the 1960s..Happy little girls dance around a toadstool…they sing songs you’d never meet anywhere else….they enjoy arts and crafts…and the hot pass the parcel prize, in this age of urban sophistication, was bubble tubs. It was fun being 8 again, just for an evening

• Attendance at the meeting of a group for which I have only the very shakiest of credentials – except by way of an episcopal suggestion…so that I spent a morning wondering why I was there, what I could possibly contribute

• Truly wonderful funeral visit – in which 2 hours were filled with memories and deep thinking about someone, - after an opening gambit by the family “No idea what we can say about X…She had a very ordinary life”. Incredibly, given the way these things usually work, our ordinand on placement was actually able to share this visit – I can’t imagine a better first experience of the genre than the generosity with which this family shared themselves with us.
  

• Amazing and wonderful efforts by church warden and parish secretary to produce a team of ringers and a presentable church for a wedding couple who’ve had a few disasters on their way through the conveyor belt of wedding prep. Longsuffering Clockmaker and Hugger Steward also joined in the “spruce up the church” campaign, shifting paving slabs and helping to make a silk purse out what is, though only for the moment, a sow’s ear. Not sure which,if any, of the key players reads here, but in case they do drop in THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
  

• Holy ground at the bedside of a dying parishioner….her family there….the hospice staff kind beyond measure…and as I prayed for her, I was conscious, too, of 2 good friends whose mothers also died this week, a 12 year old across the Pond who has lost her father, and still born twins (who would now be older than me) mourned and commended to God...As I write, I’ve just heard of another friend's bereavement. Sometimes it’s just so hard…

• And then another surreal juxtaposition – straight from the hospice to a wedding rehearsal for tomorrow,- all jokes and nervous energy in our suspended building site. Talk about life’s rich tapestry…

So now it’s late, and I’m more tired than I remember being for a very long time. Mostly good tired, though perhaps this was not the wisest week to finally lose patience with my post India weight-gain and sign up to take action,- but if not now, when?


Lots of things ticked off the to do list, but I have a wedding address to sort before I can even begin to think of Sunday’s sermon,- and then there’s the afternoon worship for confused elderly and some creative something for Koinonia if I make it through Sunday's Evensong. Oh, and the aptly named Michaelmas Madness, St M’s takeover of the junior school playing field for an open afternoon of games and crafts for the community…that’s after the wedding….
Ummm….Head down, and make for Monday seems the best strategy…see you on the other side!