Freezing in church

It took me ages to get to sleep last night, Clare too apparently. Nevertheless, ending up sleeping well and woke up feeling unusually refreshed. It was 3C, and stayed around that temperature all day, under a sunny blue sky with clouds building up later. I drove to St German's to celebrate Mass. The church heating is still not working, it felt as cold indoors as outside. With a shortened liturgy we finished ten minutes earlier than usual. I kept my thick indoor jacket on under my vestments and kept warm, apart from my hands, which tend to get cramp when it's really cold.  The coldness made it difficult to focus on reading my sermon, and I wasn't happy about my delivery of it, but we all survived.  Basma wasn't there, as she injured her foot a couple of weeks ago and still can't walk on it without pain, so after a much needed cup of coffee and a chat, I got home for lunch just after one.

I relaxed in the chair, dozed a while, chatted to Owain on the phone, then went out at four for a walk under lovely sunset with white clouds tinged with pink and orange. When I get back, Clare had already left for Abergavenny, where the Plygain group she sings with was taking part in another service. With the house to myself, after supper, I recorded Morning Prayer and Reflection for St Paul's day without disturbance, then made the video slideshow and uploaded it YouTube. Clare returned about nine, and I found out that the concert had been in Holy Trinity Anglican Church Abergavenny, which I recall preaching in back in the 1980s when I worked for USPG. It's now part of a ministry area with two town churches and five in rural villages whose population has expanded, like suburbs with fields in between over the years. The area is served by a rail link so it's an attractive place to commute from. All served by two full time clergy. A sign of the times, sad to say.

Britain and the US have mounted a couple attacks on Houthi rebel forces in Yemen, in response to months of attacks on Red Sea shipping which have scaled up from occasional to frequent, in which they use Iranian supplied ballistic missiles and drones, now in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza where the death toll is now 24,000. This is an unwanted measure of escalation in the Middle East, a dangerous moment which could so easily slip beyond control.

After finishing work I watched another episode of 'Bones' and then wound down for the night.