I drove to Penarth again this morning to celebrate the Eucharist at St Augustine's for sixteen people. The Ignatian meditation group was meeting at Diana's at noon, so I got back in good time to attend and stay for lunch. Straight after this I walked to St Catherine's to officiate at a funeral service, followed by burial in Western cemetery.
At the graveside an unusually heavy coffin needed all the strength of six bearers to negotiate a way over uneven ground and then into its just wide enough destination. Even so, two lost control of the webbing straps used for lowering into the grave, just at the end. It was hardly noticeable, but I got the impression that a couple of men came away with injuries. As is habitual, no interruption or fuss was made to distress mourners. It illustrates another aspect of the respect and consideration ordinary folk can show for each other in tough times.
I've been asked to stand in for two funerals next week, and two weekday Eucharists. I was asked for a couple other other services but had to say sorry, already taken. It doesn't happen all that often that I'm so busy these days, but it only takes a clergy illness, an interregnum or two, coupled with an unusual spike in the expected number of deaths, for the reduced number of working clergy to be left struggling to cope. Glad I'm fit and able to help.
I had an email this evening about a wedding blessing I'm tasked with performing in Nerja for a couple from Norway. It will be bi-lingual, English-Norwegian, one of ten lined up for me to do during my three month stay there.
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