Turning a page

I woke up after eight, and had breakfast. Clare was already up and had eaten. Kath and Rhiannon emerged an hour later. Today's united Parish Eucharist was at eleven. It was Clare's turn on the post service drinks rota, so she had to leave early. I followed half an hour later. The church hall was laid out with tables and a huge bring and share buffet for the Parish Lunch to follow the service. Unfortunately there was a power cut, so it was impossible to serve hot drinks until a couple of large pans of water were boiled on the hall's gas hob, which took time afterwards.

Fr Andrew celebrated bilingually and preached in English. There were about seventy of us in church along with a dozen children. A group from St Peter's Fairwater who had an earlier service with him, came for the lunch, which was most encouraging.  I wish something could be done about the timing of the entrance of the Sunday School children into the service at Communion time. They entered noisily during the Eucharistic Prayer. During the offertory hymn would be better to avoid this. When Andrew finished the Eucharistic Prayer, he paused and rescued the situation by getting everyone to be silent together before introducing the Lord's Prayer. 

It didn't help that the church public address system wasn't working, though both the overhead infra red heaters and central heating radiators were working, thankfully. Pavements at the end of King's Road around the corner from the church were dug up and cordoned as work was being done on underground infrastructure forcing pedestrians to walk in the road. It seems one of the three electrical current phases used in power supply had been cut, and that was why the hall supply was cut off. It didn't dampen the spirits of a lunch gathering, with about ninety people. It was a happy occasion, and the first to assemble members from four of the six Ministry Area churches to eat together. 

Clare and I didn't stay, however, as Kath offered to cook lunch for us, so that we would eat together before they set out for Kenilworth. It was gone three when they left, with Rhiannon driving. It took them four hours to reach home instead of the usual two, as Rhiannon is a learner driver and not allowed on motorways, so they went up the A48 all the way to Gloucester, before joining the A46 to take them north east to Warwick, then Kenilworth. It was lovely to have Rhiannon with us for four days, and Kath for the weekend. While Rhiannon was with us she had a successful telephone interview for another job on the role playing team of actors at Warwick Castle, where she worked last summer and autumn.

After they left us, Clare and I went for a walk in the park with afternoon sunshine to cheer us. While walking, after Clare returned home, I listened to the two episodes of 'The Archers' I missed in the week, to catch on them up before today's episode after the news at seven. There was several interesting story threads at the moment, including one about the felling of ancient oak trees without preservation orders on them, by developers lacking a sufficiently broad enough environmental conscience - shades of HS2 construction -  although we've seen old trees taken down by housing developers in town, and wonder how they got away with it, given local protest. 'The Archers' is still fulfilling its original educational role in portraying rural affairs.

I worked on preparations for next week's Sway in advance of tomorrow's session with Paula, who has volunteered to take on the editor's role after Easter. She's coming around after lunch, for an introduction to software unfamiliar to her. This afternoon I emailed her the weekly work schedule which I inherited from Frances and have followed ever since. I think she'll take it in her stride and get used to it quickly. I worked with her for a while on the staff team at St Mike's twelve years ago. She taught history there until she retired, and is a member of St Luke's congregation. So pleased we have found someone in good time, so that the Sway handover won't be a last minute panic, as mine was.

I'm glad today has been such a positive one for the life of West Cardiff Parish Churches. Glad also that Sway can have a future without relying on me. I think I've kept it going at least to my own satisfaction this past six months and learned new things. Even so, a little voice within me has been saying 'Enough!' this past few months. Not so tired as to be making a mess of doing it, carried along by a disciplined routine, but a voice calling out for a more creative kind of work, not just routine maintenance. When I have more freedom, what will I do with it? I don't know yet.