Good Friday

I went to the Cathedral a little later than I should have done. Trust me to get it wrong twice in 24 hours! Dean Gerwyn was leading the Way of the Cross for a family congregation of about fifty adults and three dozen children. Some of them were dressed for a re-enactment of the Passion, but I missed their early dramatic presentation. It was just good to be there, sitting quietly in the morning sunlight, hearing Gerwyn engage with the children, drawing out of them what they knew about the story of this day. The Cathedral is an environment that lends itself as well to informal and interactive services as for grand solemn ritual, even if not every kind of worshipper appreciates this enormous asset to Christian witness.

Clare went off to a midday service at St John's Canton, and I cooked lunch for her to return to - my version of our usual Good Friday chick pea soup. I arrived at St Michael's Tongwynlais a good half hour before anyone else and sat on a churchyard bench in the sun, enjoying the waiting. There were twenty for the Liturgy of the Passion. 

A small cross previously used for the veneration had been lost behind a wardrobe on top of which it had been kept. In a previous year an 'Old Rugged Cross' had been fashioned from the trunks of old Christmas trees, but this had ended up being parked outdoors in a corner of the garden where it eventually fell apart and became unusable. So, with a few minutes to spare, a successful attempt was made to recover the previous cross from behind a wardrobe, and all proceeded as intended, more or less. 

There's always a need to adapt such an occasional liturgy to the circumstances at the time. I wasn't exactly sure when we started where I would be inviting the congregation to venerate the cross, but it worked out fine, just parking it on the corner of the Easter Garden already installed, just in front of the pulpit.

On the way home I called at Tesco's and bought a couple of packs of Hot Cross Buns, aware that this was something Clare would not be baking one handed this year, even if there are things she's already succeeded in doing with her right arm in a sling. Needless say, Clare had bought a pack of buns on her way home from church. Thank goodness Owain is coming for the weekend!