A damp and cloudy day here in Wales, but the weather was decent enough for the last day of the Queen's Jubilee celebration, with a three hour long multi cultural carnival procession to Buckingham Palace down the Mall to come, and Wales playing Ukraine a mile away from here this afternoon for a qualifying place in the football World Cup. The BBC radio Four 'Sunday' religious news programme reflected on the lively faith of the Queen, and her slow careful transformation of the understanding of her 'Fid Def' role as it says on the coins, from being Defender of the Faith (understood as protestant religion, to Defender of Faith, affirming and protecting the freedoms and equality of all religious belief communities in Britain.
Prince Charles spoke of this paradigm shift a couple of decades ago, in terms of his understanding of what the Monarch should be. Then he was castigated by media for not toeing the traditional line. By the time he becomes king this shift will be reflected in what it now means to be head of the Established Church, a role he inherits from his mother. The Anglican church may still have some way to go to be acknowledged as fully diverse and inclusive, but it has made a substantial start during my lifetime, thanks to the influence of the Queen and her clergy.
The roads were very quiet when I drove to St German's to celebrate Mass with just two dozen others this morning. Eye surgeon Andrew was in church, just back from a stint in Malawi. We talked briefly about when I might be booked in after the three month delay thanks to covid. My spell of locum duty intervenes with the possibility of getting it done this summer. After the op apparently, one must use special eye drops daily for a month. If it were possible to fit in the surgery before I go, I'd have to self administer without Clare's support in an environment different from home, and a lot hotter. This could complicate the recovery process, so it's better to plan for early autumn surgery.
I think I may have gone on too long about the Queen in my Pentecost Sunday sermon. It was a quarter past one when I got back home for lunch, and the roads weren't especially crowded despite the football match this afternoon. After lunch I discovered that I'd lost my fitbit. I search the house but there was no sign. It must have popped out of its wristband, possibly when I was vesting or divesting myself in the sacristy, before or after Mass. I think I may need to go over there tomorrow and hunt for it. Until I find it or buy a replacement, I'll have to rely on my phone's pedometer, and be sure to carry it around with me. I've come to rely on it to maintain a consistent degree of physical activity daily, even if I don't feel like it. Clare thinks I'm obsessional.
We went for a walk along the Taff after lunch. I saw swifts and swallows foraging over the river. About a six weeks ago I saw a solitary swift, but none since. To see half a dozen passerines, to give swallows, swifts and martins their generic ornithological name, we gratifying, almost I might say, a relief, as the numbers making the journey from southern Africa is in steep decline.
I watched an hour and a half of this afternoon's Jubilee parade with Clare on BBC iPlayer - mercifully with no commentary, just the stunning images of thousands of participants all dressed up imaginatively in carnival costume reflecting the culture of their places of Commonwealth origin. An immense creative enterprise, a masterpiece of a showcase for Britain's cultural diversity, as well as tell the story of social and technical development over the past seventy years. The footage shown was unedited and required a certain amount of fast forwarding with the zapper in hand, as the procession was so slow moving. There will be edited highlights with people wittering on in the background, no doubt, but the raw visuals of the occasion were a true feast for the eye.
Best of all, as the event drew to a close, Her Majesty appeared with other royals on the balcony of the Palace, for the singing of the national anthem and to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. I couldn't have sat through the whole thing live anyway when needing exercise, but this re-run gave me an hour of the three to enjoy, before being diverted to the laptop to watch last Monday's episode of 'The Blacklist' on 5USA. Why am I still watching this series? Each episode is rather predictable, but there is a linking spy story narrative thread between crime solving episodes. I'm waiting to see when the improbable turns into the ridiculously impossible. Daft really.
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