After breakfast, I went to the Eucharist at St Catherine's, the last occasion for Mother Frances to celebrate there, we were fifteen altogether. Afterwards there was a special round of cupcakes to share, with a bunch of flowers and a card from the weekday worship regulars. We took our leave of each other afterwards in the knowledge that there may be minor issues missed out that we'll need to be in touch with each others about in coming weeks.
It's good to know she's getting a fortnight's holiday and Cataluyna before starting her new job mid September. Moving is tiring enough, but the job has been especially taxing for her since Emma left for Caerphilly Ministry Area after Easter - four urban churches one full-time priest. Organising Sunday cover alone can be a nightmare, let alone the occasional offices and funerals. Unsustainable, really exhausting. Let's hope her new ministry on Holy Island will put new life into her, more than it takes out!
I collected this week's veggie bag from Chapter on my way home, and then cooked lunch. Waiting for me in the letter box on arrival was a letter from HMRC with a tax refund cheque for nearly a hundred pounds. That was quite a surprise. When I submitted my tax return I didn't think I owed anything, and that I might get a refund for a third that amount. Also surprising was the speed at which this arrived. It's just twelve days since I filed my return.
Having also received an expenses cheque earlier this week from my locum cover in Caerphilly a few weeks ago, a trip into town to the remaining HSBC branch was necessary to pay them into my account. I used the bus going and returning, but it was five by the time I got home. I paused in Wharton Street on my way to take photos of the gap in the side of the former James Howell department store building. One section facing the street about ten metres wide has been demolished to give construction lorries access to the core of the building where the former Bethany Chapel still stands. In 1963 it closed and the congregation re-established itself in another chapel in Rhiwbina.
The building was incorporated into the store as it was being extended out from its original site, creating a huge inner courtyard, with corridors linking it to the rest of the building on all sides at ground and first floor levels. It was an ingenious way to conserve this legacy of nineteenth century non-conformist prosperity in Cardiff. Bethany Particular Baptist Congregation was built in 1807, rebuilt 1821-27, then enlarged in 1840, and rebuilt again in 1865. The Particular Baptists were a group embracing a Calvinist interpretation of biblical teaching, which was widespread in its influence on Presbyterians in Wales from the 18th to mid-20th century, and on some independent evangelical movements as well. Churches which are now close to extinction, after being the majority of Christians adherents in Wales as century ago.
When I got back, there was this week's grocery shopping to do at the Coop, which only took three quarters of an hour. Then it was approaching supper time. I did a little work on this week's Sway after we'd eaten, then watched the fourth available episode of 'The Investigations of Lolita Lobosco'. It seems there are another six in the pipeline, but when these will appear is anybody's guess. All four have been a good watch, full of humour and romance alongside a serious crime to be solved, and an account of the protagonists early life and influences, told through a series of flashbacks.
Tonight, the full Blue Moon rises. I got a few photos, but thin slow moving cloud frustrated efforts to get clear pictures, sad to say. It'll be eleven years before the next Blue Moon appears.
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