Family Sunday

I was awake again at dawn this morning, but the girls remained fast asleep in their tent. I thought I was due to celebrate the eight o'clock at St John's Canton, so Clare got up to come with me, to have the rest of the morning free with the family. We took with us our top table flower arrangement from yesterday, still fresh enough to place at the foot of the altar. In my sermon for the day I mentioned the fact that we chose the Transfiguration Feast as a day to get married, as an act of defiant hope made at the height of the Cold War, since it's also the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It loomed over us then as does global warming and terrorism today.

Fr Phelim was there at St John's, just opening up as we arrived. I'd read my duty schedule wrongly, but that didn't matter, as it gave us an opportunity to be together and worship, which doesn't happen very often. Then I did my assigned duties, celebrating the Eucharist at St John's, nine fifteen and St Luke's at the ten thirty. Then, another lunch out in the garden, followed by a family photograph, as we'd forgotten to take one yesterday.

Then we went for walk in Llandaff Fields at attempted to take another family photograph - only this time, not with my DSLR, as I'd forgotten to re-insert the SD card after transferring the first few photos, so Kath perched her iPhone on my camera tripod and took a photo of us all sitting on the grass.

Rachel and Jasmine were returning to Kenilworth with Kath, Anto and Rhiannon for the last two nights before flying to Arizona early in the morning from Birmingham International. Packing and taking leave of us seemed very hard to do, and we lingered for ages, making music around the piano. The bonds of family affection are so hard to relinquish, after such a rich, intense weekend of meeting a remembering. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but life must continue on its different paths, thankful for all we've shared, grateful to God for so many blessings, entrusting ourselves to who knows what next?