It was a beautifully warm and sunny day to celebrate our Lord's Ascension, yesterday, with no commitments until the evening, apart from getting things ready for Owain's late night arrival. My Tuesday visitors sent a message to ask if they could come by this afternoon and make some measurements, a sign that meetings yesterday and today led to an appointment being made at last.
It'll be made public here and back in their home parish on Pentecost Sunday, that's my last day of duty here. I am so happy for the Chaplaincy, and delighted about the choice of a priest who has plenty of the right kind of experience for this place, plus the willingness to pursue a fresh adventure in ministry when many would be happy just to retire and settle into domestic obscurity.
Out of the 120+ weeks of interregnum, I'll have spent 23 weeks here on locum duty here. It's been a wonderful experience, getting to know the three church congregations, and work with Doreen as her ordained ministry has continued to develop, regardless of being deprived of supervision in ministry since she was ordained. Her previous experience as a religious, church missioner and social worker certainly sustained her, and we've had some good conversations about ministry, in hours spent on the phone and fairly occasional meetings in her busy schedule. A bit like being back at St Mike's for me. But, as my time draws to a close, I realise how much I've come to love the life of this city, its people and their cultures. I'm going to miss this place.
By the time I got to St George's at six, Doreen had everything organised and prepared for the evening's Confirmation Eucharist, with seating for half a dozen robed clergy to cater for, and last minute preparation with the three adults and four children to complete along with Gilly. There was a good turnout from the Velez congregation, supporting their one adult candidate. The rest were of Nigerian origin, two mothers, and four children. One of the mothers has a young baby, looked after by others at the back of church during the service. A couple of times she slipped out of her seat and took care of the child's need, then returned. It was all so natural and easy going.
At six thirty, Bishop David arrived, and I was able to meet him briefly, for the first time in the eight years since I've been doing locum work in the diocese Then I joined the choir to rehearse the anthem for the service, before joining the Bishop, clergy and choir for the entrance procession. That was all I had to do. It was pleasantly relaxing, as Doreen's preparation bore fruit and everything went as well as it could do. It's the first Confirmation service here in nine years, and one which everyone present is bound to remember well.
Bishop David surprised us all, in the way he administered the Confirmation rite, speaking personally to each candidate about the meaning of the personal name which he would use when he laid hands on each of them. Nearly all of them were biblical, but he spoke of 'name' as a gift which carried with it characteristics that could be applied in the life of faith. I'd never heard of any Bishop doing this before. Not only surprising but personally encouraging, and inspiring to everyone present.
Afterwards, I stayed around to socialise only for a while, as I had to rendezvous at the airport with Owain. I used bus and metro to arrive there but before eleven. His flight was fifteen minutes early, and we were re-united at half past. Delayed by a long passport queue, we missed the 23.24 train and had half an hour to wait for the next. We picked up a bus from near the station within minutes. It was one of the circular night buses, but not the one I thought it was. Instead of getting off at the Paseo del Parque, expecting it to go down Paseo de Reding we stayed on, and it took us down the tunnel to a stop on Calle Victoria. This meant we had to walk back through the tunnel, so it was nearly half past midnight when we arrived at the apartment. And then, we ate, drank and talked ....
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