Bishop June came to preside and confirm at this morning's United Parish Eucharist at St Catherine's. There were nine candidates altogether from our Benefice and from the Parish of Cathays, several of whom I knew who came in support of candidates, still fully active there, twenty years on from when the parish was created at the break up of the Benefice of Central Cardiff. Once the Sunday school children and teachers arrived at the offertory, the church was just over half full, about 150 adults and children.There were seven clergy present, notably five women and two men, plus our male ordinand. It's typical of the times we're living in. Decades ago Confirmation would have been a standing room only occasion in Parish life. These days, standing room only events seem confined to large funerals of folk who die tragic deaths.
I began to get a bit fidgety towards the end of the service, as I was conscious of my time deadline fast approaching to walk to St Luke's an conduct the infant baptism I prepared for last month. It had been arranged however that church warden Beryl would there to open up and get everything ready. As it happened, she was also at the service, and gave me a lift, so we were both there by ten past twelve with time to spare.
We had an unusual congregation, as both husband and wife each had several siblings married with young children. There were three dozen adults in church and amazingly, fifteen under-fives, including several babes in arms. The kids seemed happy to potter around and enjoy the space, or sit with their parents and watch, all remarkably well behaved, and maybe used to being in church, for a change. I thoroughly enjoyed this celebration. I told the congregation about the Parish Confirmation earlier, and encouraged those who hadn't had their kids baptized to consider it.
Unusually, most of the service leaflets, which usually get collected in afterwards, weren't discarded but taken away. Beryl wasn't bothered about this, as she thought some of them were looking a bit dog-eared. A few times, I nearly came adrift, as the printed text I was reading from was rather small and not clearly enough laid out in a decent font to make for easy reading while standing up.
After everyone left and things were tidied up, I walked home under overcast skies in the drizzle. Glad it's like this today. It would have made yesterday's lovely fete a sadder an less profitable occasion. A record sum of over £3,500 was made, thanks to hard graft and good Parish teamwork
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