First and last times...

Yesterday was interesting....Very full-on Sunday morning as I was both presiding and preaching at 10.00 (which will be a familiar scenario ere long, so worth a reminder), then we shot over to Gloucester as St M's choir (including the Dufflepud) were doing Choral Evensong in the Cathedral. I may be biased, but I thought they did really well, - though I realised that being very fond of and concerned for our junior choristers can make me feel disturbingly as if I am their mum! While V was making a wonderful job of Mendelssohn's Hear my Prayer I found myself singing every note in my head, breathing for her, doing all the stuff that I do when Hattie Gandhi is performing. Felt both tearful and exhausted when she reached the end...it was very beautiful.

Home to set out prayer stations reflecting the theme from the morning's gospel
"Water of Life"...WonderfulVicar and I had assumed that the absence of the choir would mean a tiny congregation for Evening Prayer, so had agreed that I would offer the prayer trail I had planned for Koinonia to this rather traditional congregation. Two years ago, even one year ago I would simply not have entertained this idea, but in the event it went really well, with almost everyone engaging with the stations and some very positive feedback at the door.
You read it first here, folks...St M's embraces alt worship at evensong!!!

Later, the youth group made their way round those same stations, in a church now lit almost exclusively by candles, and with the hypnotic sound of Philip Roderick's hang drum CD playing softly in the background. I sat at the back and drank in the whole thing, thanking God for all that I've received through these forays into multi-sensory worship here...and for the youth group whose needs gave me the courage to experiment.



There was a bit of stupidity from one quarter later in the evening - which was possibly just as well, as I'd have hated to spend the time wallowing in tearful thoughts of the "Last time here..." variety...But it was good!