Wagner at Pentecost

Our friend Claudine arrived at lunchtime yesterday from Geneva, where she'd stopped over, after flying from Bangkok, to give a talk to Holy Trinity Church's Care and Concern Group, before coming to us for a night at the opera and a relaxed weekend. We went to see the WNO's Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde', and our friend Pauline came with us as well. The performance at the Millennium Centre was superbly crafted. It's the second time we've seen this production. This time I decided that I don't like the opera. Not because it's so long - five o'clock until ten fifteen - with an hour long supper break, but to my mind, essentially this great saga of tragic romance is not all that romantic. The bottom line is 'death is stronger than love'. Depressing teutonic philosophical musings. At least it reminds me that I'm a Christian. Pagan myth and legend don't do anything to make my life more worth living. The music, however, is rich and powerful, worth listening to despite the sentiments floated over it.

This morning I had only one service to take, an eleven o'clock at Holy Cross Cowbridge. This meant we could have a late breakfast and be together for worship. I would have been happy to take Claudine to any of the Benefice churches, because people are all so welcoming, but Holy Cross, in the middle of the town is a special place to take visitors. I knew it was important for her, as she doesn't often get to church these days. She lives in Thailand, travels to and from the north of the country and goes to Burma in the course of her work for the Swiss government's humanitarian programme. She misses the regular sustenance of traditional Anglican worship in a mainly Buddhist environment where most of the few churches are very conservative evangelical. A Pentecost Parish Eucharist hit the right spot for her, and I glimpsed her beaming smile during Communion.

Afterwards Clare and Claudine went out and sat in the sun in the Cowbridge Physic Garden, opposite the church - a very pleasant place to relax while I hung around in church and chatted with people after the service. Then we drove towards home, stopping for an excellent lunch at the Loch Fyne restaurant near Saint Hilary en route. We arrived back, just in time to welcome colleague friends of Claudine's who dropped in for tea, catch up and a baggage transfer. Their daughter, recently back-packing in Thailand, had sent home with Claudine a package of clothes redundant after a sojourn in temperate New Zealand! How small the world becomes for those who lives revolve around travel, as opposed to the rest of us whose journeys, great or small, occasional big events.