Obsequies

I admit that thinking about the Dean of Llandaff's resignation has much exercised my mind today, even if I am on the sidelines with no possibility of making a difference to the outcome. Whatever happens, the services will continue, children will be baptized and nurtured, people will get married and the dead will be sent from church to their resting place. 

At lunchtime my place was in St Mary's Whitchurch, welcoming the family and friends of Ivor Broad, the father of my friend Julia, for his funeral service. People from Cardiff who remember him as a friend or colleague, as well as from London West Yorkshire and Divonne les Bains in France, came together for his funeral, prepared entirely by his priest daughter. There were around eighty people present. The Rector Canon John Rowlands, who'd already done a funeral on this his day off, welcomed everyone, and opened and closed the service, leaving me to introduce the readers and readings, reflect and pray.  As we led Ivor's coffin into church, we commiserated with each other about the resignation of the new Dean.

It all went as it was intended to, and after the Committal at Thornhill Crem, there was a reception just up the road at Manor Park Hotel, where co-incidentally I dined last year with friends Michael and Barbara Bell from Geneva. It provided an opportunity to relax for a while and chat with extended family members before making my way home through rainy Friday afternoon traffic. So glad that complex arrangements worked to everyone's satisfaction. I have another funeral on the horizon for next Friday already. Today I heard of a parish priest in this city's costa geriatrica who sometimes does fifteen funerals a week. How?