Today has been a quiet day for staff and students at St Mike's. It was overcast and rain fell all day long, so five visits to chapel left everyone just a little damp. To add to that, I walked to and from College both ends of the day in gloom and rain.
University Chaplain Trystan Owain Hughes gave three addresses, and staff led and read Morning and Evening Prayer and the eucharistic Liturgy of Penitence. Trystan used a laptop and projector for visual aids supporting his talk. He had to switch it back on at the start of the midday service. It's the first time I can remember being called to prayer by the sound of the Windows start up chimes.
Two rooms were set aside in the main building, one for a free prayer group and the other for adoration of the Holy Sacrament. Half a dozen men donned traditional black cassocks for the occasion. Interestingly, none of the women wore theirs. Two women and a man had to stay and look after children, kept home by the half term holiday - such is the challenging nature of College life for some students. Thankfully the student body is very good at being inclusive and supporting those with conflicts of interest in their lives. I just hope Parishes will prove as good in the College hereafter.
I enjoyed the corporate silence, maintained respectfully by everyone, even those not very comfortable with this expression of common Christian discipline. Trystan had invited us in his first address to open our senses to be aware of divine beauty in creation around it. But he didn't pick the weather. I took a few photos, which is often what I do when I have silence and time in which to look carefully. I spent four months of last year mostly doing that to my great joy. Today I missed the light. A real penance. Not much of a stimulus to Lenten joy for this poor soul.
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