A cold bright sunny day to mark the Lord's Passion and Death. No service in church this morning, but the grounds of St Catherine's were open, with Mthr Emma and Fr Rhys standing around welcoming visitors. from net until noon, and I went and joined them for half an hour. Earlier a Calvary with three crosses had been set up in the flower bed by the railings on to the street. The grounds are looking so well cared for at the moment, and people from the neighbourhood who come in to walk around are most appreciative.
After lunch I walked to St Luke's for the Liturgy of the Passion. The church with its socially distanced seating, and stripped bare looked good, like a monastic church There were two dozen of us, much the same people as have attended each day this week and seeing the same familiar faces in a way gives it something of a monastic feel.
The choir which sang last night sang again, chanting Psalm 22 Anglican fashion and anthems during the devotions at the cross. The crucifix was carried in and displayed but could not be venerated in the customary way, but I don't think this detracted from the solemnity of the occasion. There was no formal procession to begin with Mthr Emma and Fr Rhys took their places quietly and we all sat in silence for a while, like a Quaker meeting, I thought. The lean un-fussy nature of the liturgy this week has appealed greatly to me.
When it came to Communion, Emma came me half a Communion wafer. I was surprisingly touched by this. It's the first time I have received bread broken since before going to Ibiza fifteen months ago. I'm not a fan of communion wafers. Normally, if I preside and have a priest's host, I break it and share it, though nowadays I'm not sure if that's allowed, so I don't do it. This weeks turnout for services has resulted in the reserved sacrament stock unintentionally running low, so Emma broke some small wafers to give to the clergy - 'family hold back' maxim. It never really seems right to me symbolically speaking, that we don't normally receive a piece of broken bread. I've always thought people's wafers are a practical convenience that undermines the significance of the dominical action.
After the service Mthr Frances asked if I could cover two more funerals, to free up the clergy team to take their leave. I'm happy to do this, and unusually I'll be dealing with three different funeral directors. After the service I met Clare at the Co-op to do some grocery shopping. It was the first time either of us have had to queue for five minutes to get into the Co-op. I think they may have been short staffed, as there was a queue to get out as well. The rest of the day I spent preparing texts for next week's Morning Prayer and editing the reflections I've already written, so that, combined they are no more than ten minutes each in length. Nice to have work to do that I enjoy.
When I think back to last year, being on my own alone working hard at producing services for an audience that I wouldn't meet, it was the challenge of a lifetime. This year's Holy Week, though far from being usual has been such a blessed consolation.
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