Curlew River revisited

A cold overcast start to the day, but the cloud broke up and the sun came through fleetingly later on. We went to St Catherine's for the All Age Eucharist which today included the baptism of a small boy. I had an interesting conversation over coffee with a young woman who has joined the choir recently. She's decided to investigate Christian faith on her own terms, conscious that her contemporaries are not interested. One of her siblings has become a Muslim after inquiring into Islam's teaching about God. Growing up in North Wales she encountered Eastern Orthodoxy through the ministry of the Welsh hermit, Fr Barnabas. Being a singer, choir seemed to be the right place for her to start. I told her how important singing in church choirs had been to me as a teenager and a student. It was how I learned about authentic Christian faith, and encountered the mystery of God, rather than through formal instruction classes.

After lunch, I delivered the remaining fifteen Christmas Fayre leaflets of the assignment I took on last Sunday, having picked up the extras I needed from church earlier. I was still one short annoyingly. I must have re-started delivery at the wrong house, or made an incorrect count. I made the effort to go out early for a walk. As a result I was home half an hour before sunset. In the darkest months yet to come, making the most of daylight hours outdoors may be one practical way to defend myself from wintry melancholia.

After supper we watched a film of Benjamin Britten's opera 'Curlew River'. It's the 60th anniversary of its premiere, and we first heard about it when we were students and bought a record of an early performance. If we hadn't been familiar with the music, and the setting of the performance in what I think is the Parish Church at Aldeburgh, it wouldn't have been as compelling to listen to. The theatrical action was interlaced with beautiful shots of the Suffolk coast, an area we've come to know over years of visiting Eddy and Ann in Felixstowe. For me, it's a special landscape to contemplate, such a contrast to the coast of Wales.

Then I watched the final two episodes of 'Ludwig' to finish the day. A quirky sort of detective series, difficult to follow on times, with an incomplete story line ending, so there'll be another series, sooner or later. Ah well, that's entertainment.