Christingle at Creigau

My Sunday morning preaching engagement today was at a Family Christingle service in the church hall in the village of Creigau, part of Pentyrch Parish, currently waiting for the arrival of new Vicar in Eastertide. Thankfully, yesterday evening's snow had all but disappeared and the roads weren't icy, otherwise it would have been an uphill struggle to arrive on time. The service was well organised and mostly led by lay people, with the music provided by a group comprising a 'cellist, a fiddler, a guitarist, a keyboard player, a couple of recorder players, and tambourine, paying for a congregation of about thirty people. 

The service was organised 'in the round', and for the second week running, I delivered my prepared message from memory standing among the people, not behind a lectern or in a pulpit. The congregation was welcoming and responsive  making it easy to work in a relaxed way - a bit like a stand up comedian, I couldn't help thinking secretly. Although it wasn't the Sunday Eucharist which I regard as the core of my personal prayer life, it was nevertheless an experience of life giving community in the Spirit, which is all one can hope for, no matter what kind of worship takes place.
 

As soon as I arrived home, we set off by road for Scarborough to attend the funeral of my dear friend Peter, arranged for Monday lunchtime. Along with food, blankets and a shovel, I packed the little laptop and a 3g MID dongle in case we needed to check local travel information en route, but we didn't need it. The roads were fairly quiet and free of snow and ice. Temperatures were just above freezing nearly all the way on the five and a half hour drive, including a stop for a picnic lunch.. The landscape throughout was under a mantle of several inches of snow, and the roads were wet. We had clouds and sunshine on the journey, but it neither rained nor snowed. We were fortunate. Had it been a day earlier we might not have been able to travel, and we judged that driving up on Monday morning would have been too risky.