On the move again

After a successful attempt to compensate for the hour's advancement of the clocks with a punctual bed-time for a change, I drove out into the Vale of Glamorgan on this bright spring day for a nine fifteen service at Llandough followed by an eleven o'clock at St Hilary. In just one more week of mild weather, great swathes of daffodils in the roadside verges have come to bloom and blossom is appearing on the trees. It was a good day to announce officially the appointment of a new Team Vicar, Martin Perry, starting in July. He was parish priest in that part of the Vale of Neath where last year's Gleision Colliery tragedy occurred. His presence will be a godsend to the hard pressed ministry team of Cowbridge Benefice, understaffed now for about two years.

Over the weekend, came confirmation of an invitation to do locum pastoral duties for the Costa Azahar chaplaincy, between Barcelona and Valencia in Spain. I'll be there from July until November, and then will go to Sicily for locum dutues in Taormina during December. It'll be strange to working out of the country again for six months, save for brief visits home, and one special weekend in August already booked for locum duties in Merthyr Vale. However congenial chaplaincy work abroad may be it's no good reason to change that prior commitment. I am, after all, despite the breadth of my past ministerial experience a 'Valleys boy', and still want to support clergy in the Valleys needing holiday cover. These days there are convenient flights from Cardiff to Barcelona, and from Bristol to Valencia, booked well in advance, this doesn't have to cost as much as a train trip to London.

After lunch, Clare and I worked together on the layout of the book translation she's editing. It's a review of published material on the influence on babies and infants of using electronic media in their presence, and the impact of this invasive activity on bonding between mother and child. The original German text was compiled by her friend Marlies over in Switzerland. It has received favourable attention, and an English translation has been made. She is preparing this for publication, and my task is to get it to look right, and resemble the German original, using an ancient version of Microsoft Publisher. It's a very fiddly exercise. There are always minor changes that need to be made, and almost all of them distort the layout, which means it then needs scrupulous checking again. Still, it's a worthwhile cause, and it will hopefully raise another kind of debate about what we are doing to human relationships by such over-use of electronic media that there are negative and undesirable consequences.