More farewell festivity

It rained for most of the day. We attended the 10h30 Sung Eucharist at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, which was Keith Dale's final service as organist. A lay reader from Paris was guest preacher. Keith was prayed for in the intercessions, and at the end church warden Deborah Vorheis and former church warden Jenny Buffle gave excellent tributes to his work and presented him with gifts. This was followed by a buffet lunch in the parish hall downstairs, with more tributes from choir and congregation. For us it was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends, and so good to share this rite of passage with them, particularly as I was Chaplain when Keith was appointed. He'd been interviewed by church warden Freddie Raveney, and it was delightful that he and his wife Eve came out for the weekend to join the farewells.

    

After lunch, we returned to Manel's for an hour, and then went with her to Gingins for their 16h30 Eucharist. This gave us an opportunity to catch up with a few more friends, and to meet Carolyn Cook, the new Chaplain of La Cȏte for the first time. Although it's summer vacation when many people are away, there were still four dozen people in church. I was pleasantly suprised to discover that the majority of faces were new to me. We've worshipped on and off there down the years since we left Geneva, and while there are still familiar faces in both La Cȏte and Geneva, the number of newcomers grows. More so in La Cȏte than in Geneva currently - and the average age is far less than the 61 quoted gloomily by some surveyor of the English church scene at home last week. Something is going right out here. Church mission is engaging, and making is mark in building community and sharing the Gospel.

But the time the service had ended, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining through the clouds. We had a cup of tea and a chat in the Maison Paroissale, and then drove up the Col de la Givrine to Saint-Cergue to meet with Keith and Claudine for a fondue in a village restaurant. We looked at photos of Thailand Claudine had brought with her on her iPhone and shared their excitement about their new life, ten hours flight away from Switzerland. The air was clear for the evening drive back to Geneva, and the clouds had cleared enough to reveal Mont Blanc in gleaming glory, first white and then golden. One of my favourite of all commuter journeys during my working life.