Rain overnight again with the sun occasionally breaking through clouds and showers during the day, again more like autumn than summer. I drove to St German's to celebrate Mass in the absence of Fr Jarel this morning. It's must be six months since I was here as a locum priest during the last vacancy. No changes in the way the service is done, except that the high altar table was shifted eastward by about a metre for the St German's Day celebration in which Fr Jarel had his back to the congregation, after having spoken about the significance of this during the sermon. Apparently he reverted to the status quo the following week but the altar hasn't yet been returned to its original position. It really does require four strong weighty people to shift without risk.
This is only the second time in three months that I've officiated and preached at a Sunday sermon. While I enjoyed doing so and fitted into the liturgical ritual with relaxed ease, tiredness reminded me at the end of of the service how much energy it required to do this well. I have come to enjoy being in the congregation and coming away refreshed rather than drained by worship. Very much a sign of advancing age.
Basma wasn't in the congregation today. I learned that she'd been moved into emergency accommodation at the Holiday Inn out at Tongwynlais on Thursday this week. As her asylum seeker's tenure ended, it had be vacated in favour of an arriving asylum seeker. Her accommodation needs are handed over to Cardiff City Council, and she'll have to wait until 'temporary' housing is found for her, where she'll stay until she's eligible to go on the Council housing waiting list - a process that can take several years. I can't imagine a worse time to be relocated than just before a Bank Holiday weekend. There are concerns about her health because she needs to be on a restricted diet, and her mobility, as she's unsteady on her feet. This has quite an impact on the ease with which suitable accommodation can be found. It's tough for her, but she is used to fighting for herself, and is sometimes reluctant to accept help as a result.
By the time I'd chatted with fellow worshippers after the service and eaten fruit cake with coffee twice, it was twenty past one when I got home, even though the roads were almost empty with many people away from the city having a good time elsewhere. After lunch and a brief snooze I went for a walk in the park.
I emailed Basma to find out how she's adjusting to her new circumstances. With difficulty was the response. No provision has been made for her strict dietary needs. Leaving the Holiday Inn is a problem as it has a steep drive, difficult to walk down safely for her. There are no pavements along the roadside for walking into Tongwynlais village. It may be a Holiday Inn, but in effect it's a motel. Heaven help you if you don't have a car. I phoned her to see if I could be of any help. She's on survival rations until Tuesday and is hoping to negotiate with the hotel manager and kitchen staff about dietary food preparation. But no, she didn't need help. Independent, just as I expected.
This evening a new series of 'Sherwood' started on BBC1. It's set in the present day, thirty years on from the previous series, set in the same community whose loyalties were divided by differences over pit closures and the miners' strike. It starts with a murder and its repercussions with suspicions of a return to gang warfare, but is there something else going here? There's another episode tomorrow night.
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