Food for thought

After completing my preparation for preaching tomorrow, in services at at Divonne and Gingins, I went into the city armed with camera, and took a stroll across the Pont du Mont Blanc to the rive gauche, along the Quai Gustav Ador as far as the little children's beach, then walked around the Parc de la Grange, which is just across the main road, full of huge old trees resplendent in autumnal colours. It was dull and overcast when I set out, but a fresh mild wind broke up the clouds and brought the sun out. When I passed the famous jet d'eau for the second time at close quarters the huge plume of spray generated rainbows whenever the suns rays came through at a certain angle. It was altogether pleasant and refreshing walk, and you can see the photographic results here.

In the evening Claudine, Keith and I were invited to sup with Gill at her apartment in Petit Saconnex, along with Yvette, Ann-Marie and Alec. We arrived separately - for the pleasure of it, I travelled in by tram and trolley bus (there are still a couple of trolley lines in the city). Claudine and Keith came by car from church having spent the afternoon rehearsing for a big charity fund raising concert they are organising for next weekend in St Pierre Cathedral supporting a project to rebuild the Anglican Cathedral complex in Port au Prince, Haiti, destroyed by earthquake. 

Haiti's Cathedral, whatever its special artistic and cultural merits, is a key mission centre in the city, with a school and social outreach centre. At present the compound is being occupied by hundreds of homeless families. The project will bring them work and bring back into use much needed community and education facilities. That kind of reconstruction project can be a vital sign of hope in a situation where the church is at the forefront of serving the poorest of the poor.

Supper was a lovely opportunity to sit at table and enjoy a good meal in the company of old friends. Not only did we talk of Haiti but also of continuing work feeding the poor in Geneva itself. There's been a feeding centre for poor people in the area behind Cornavin main station in the area known as Les Grottes (= the caves. I never found out why) for the past quarter century to my knowledge. It's staffed by all sorts of voluntary groups on a rota basis, and Holy Trinity is one of the churches that participates. The set up is quite modest, and yet over 150 people get fed there regularly, and numbers have notably increased of late. For a city roughly te same size as Cardiff, that's more than double the clientèle. But then, Geneva being a cross-roads kind of city in the centre of Europe, the throughput of people, rich and poor alike is bound to be greater.