Blessing for a journey

I felt sad not to have a service to take this morning, so I cheered myself up by going over to St German's and enjoyed being part of the congregation of thirty there. I feel just as welcomed when I join them in worship as when I do have a service to take. We have a lot of history together over the past decade of upheaval in the church. If we lived the other side of Cardiff, I'd be there every Sunday and weekdays too. Fr Richard Lowndes celebrated. He was one of the curates of St German's back thirty years ago, and is now retired. It was good to listen him, in the pulpit and at the altar.

Much to my surprise and delight, my eye surgeon Andrew was among the congregation, visiting one last time before going to Malawi for five months, where he's helping to develop a new eye hospital. It's fraught with difficulties as equipment arrives and isn't always ready to use. Parts go missing or are broken needing specialist attention, which can even mean that it has to be accompanied to the manufacturer on its return journey. He asked if he could receive a blessing on his endeavours, so after the service, Fr Richard and I prayed and laid hands on him at the high altar. I felt much blessed by being able to touch base with him as he prepares to leave this coming Tuesday.

By the time I left church after a cup of coffee it was already one o'clock and there was a long slow moving queue of traffic to the city centre. Clare had texted me, asking if I could buy a pack of printer ink at Tesco extra on my way back, which I did. It took me nearly forty minutes to get there, twice the usual journey time, so it was two by the time I reached home.

I went for a walk in the park as Choral Evensong was broadcast live St John's College Cambridge with an excellent selection of readings and music. An hour after I returned home we were out of the house together for the St Catherine's Advent Carol service, as Clare was reading a lesson. It had the same basic structure but with quite a different selection of music, so it wasn't really vain repetition.

After supper I prepared and printed off the eulogy and prayers for tomorrow morning's funeral, and then read more of the John Le Carré before turning in for the night.