I got up in good time and was at St Catherine's to celebrate Mass at eight this morning. I was surprised and puzzled when nobody turned up, so I said Morning Prayer and went home for breakfast. It seems Francis and I had crossed wires in communicating with each other last night. I thought the monthly early service was on the third Sunday of the month when it's on the second. There is an early service in the Ministry Area this morning but it's at St David's Caerau, where I knew Frances was destined to spend the morning. I had to laugh about this, when I realised my mistake, but there's still a problem with integrating public in-line information about church services and activities.
There's still no Ministry Area-wide website which isn't dependent on Facebook. Church Facebook info pages aren't always up to date or that well organised and over-reliant on Facebook presentation format. It fails to take account of the fact that not everyone is happy to subscribe to Facebook, which you must be, to access its content. Anyone logged in to Facebook has to put up with an annoying stream of notifications, from posts left by users you're 'friends' with. Getting rid of them all is no easy matter.
There's a weekly digital news bulletin hosted by Microsoft's Sway software, which is kept up to date, but is available only to those on a circulation list. So neither of these are available public information in the true sense of the word. The situation is worsened by the absence of a current church notice board. The ones in the former Rectorial Benefice of Canton are still informing the world that Canon Mark Preece is in charge. He's been at the Cathedral four years!
Information displayed about services out in the public realm can also become more out of date unless attention is paid to this matter. Nobody cares, since most people use Facebook is no excuse. It says to hell with people who are digitally excluded for whatever reason. If there's no up-to-date physical notice board outside a church stating what it is for and who it serves, it's just another building. Just as there is such ignorance about the content of the bible nowadays, so too there's ignorance about churches and other religious community buildings. A church without a functioning noticeboard is like a work of art without a title and attribution - just another artefact recognisable only to the initiated.
After breakfast, I drove to St German's to celebrate the Eucharist. We were two dozen adults and three children. It was cold in church but the sun shone to cheer us up. Sad to thin that I won't be back here until Low Sunday. I shall really miss them all. It's funny that in many churches where I have ministered I feel as if I am carrying the congregation, whereas at St German's I feel they are carrying me. I guess that's why I enjoy serving there so much.
It was nearly half past one by the time I got home afterwards, as I chatted with several people in church and over coffee before leaving. Fortunately, Clare had only just starting eating lunch without me. Then we went out for a walk around Bute Park. I was surprised to discover how far I walked altogether today, seven miles and found that it was on our family Boxing Day hike that I last walked further. This month I've been walking about a mile less than my daily average, as much due to horrible weather as to the ankle injury.
I spent the evening watching 'Mystery Road', and then this week's episode of Happy Valley on iPlayer and by ten I was tired enough to turn in for the night.
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