Surprise haircut day

After breakfast this morning I completed the recording and editing of Thursday's Morning Prayer, and got most of the slides I needed ready for integration into the video. We shared cooking lunch, as I had chicken and Clare had vegetarian sausages, needing to be cooked separately. At two, I had an assignment with the Benefice Mothers' Union Branch, leading a service to commemorate the centenary of the death of their founder Mary Sumner, the Vicar's wife who started a parish prayer and fellowship group, and lived to see it develop into an international network of M.U. branches in places where the Anglican church is planted. In reality it's a  low key front-line missionary community working to educate and empower churchgoing women whose pastoral influence is perhaps all too often underestimated.

I was standing in for Mother Frances whose partner Sue Pinnington died two weeks ago. Sue's funeral was taking place as we met. Afterwards there was a traditional tea with lemon drizzle cake and bara brith, with a dozen women of a certain age gathering together as a group for the first time in twenty months. Their faces shone with joy and the pleasure of reunion. It was a lovely half hour, following a service that sought reflect on the lived experience of enduring and surviving the pandemic, using Psalm 90 'So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.'

Then, I took Clare over to Rumney to have her hair done by Chris. Being over the east side of town, I was minded to mooch around the big stores along Newport Road for an hour before going to St German's to celebrate the six o'clock Mass. I'd just done a tour of Curry's Digital when my phone rang. It was Clare with an invitation from Chris to return to his salon in half an hour and have my hair cut. 

My last haircut on the day hairdressers re-opened, was squeezed in on a very busy day. It was quickly done, and in a style which Clare was adamant didn't suit me, so I've been letting my hair grow long, and trimmed rough bits out with my hair clippers since then. That gave Chris a decent head of hair to restore normality to with his expert eye. He only had ten minutes to do it, as I had to get to St German's in the rush hour traffic for six. Now it's as long as Clare likes it and looks respectably neat again. We're both pleased with the look. Next time we'll both book a slot with Chris properly on the same afternoon!

I arrived at St German's with ten minutes to spare and celebrated Mass with six others, in honour of Saint Lawrence the Deacon, martyred in third century Rome. I learned that when the first mission initiative in this corner of Roath Parish was established by the Wantage Sisters nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, it was dedicated to St Lawrence, which explains why the church has a small statue of the saint in one of its side chapels. 

When I arrived, a lady was enquiring about having her first baby Christened before a second one arrives at the end of October. She was worrying about dates as booking a venue for a reception can be a real problem, with so many people wanting catch-up celebrations post lock-down. We tentatively agreed to provisionally book the last Sunday in September for her, and I promised that, as she'd met me, I would arrange to be available to take the service. I am in any case hoping to be asked to undertake interregnum duties there this autumn.

I reached home just after the Archers had finished. Having listened to it in the car, I listened again with Clare on catch-up, as she'd only just arrived from Rumney, having caught the bus home from town and done a small amount of shopping on the way. More melodramatic dysfunction from Alice to shock hearers unfamiliar with substance abusers extreme behaviour. I suspect the scriptwriters have even more in store to shake up genteel listeners. The character has been secretly an alcoholic for some years, then had a child which she had very mixed feelings about and didn't strive to keep bonded with. Post partum psychosis on top of alcohol dependency? Or has she started secretly taking crystal meth or crack cocaine in addition? Something more is up there, than what seems to be the case.

Two episodes of NCIS, neither of which I'd seen before, and a turn around the park in the dark before bed. Technically complex plots, and increasingly mumbled dialogue, which doesn't help.

Duties concluded, farewells made

I celebrated the Eucharist at St John's yesterday morning, and again this evening at St Luke's to cover for Fr Mark. These are my last assignments of parish duty cover. Walking home after this service, I dropped off three big bunches of church keys at the Rectory, which I've been using during the past couple of months. They're going to be Emma's keys hereafter. Her responsibilities develop over the coming weeks, getting acquainted with the Parish setup in detail. 

Before lunch, I said goodbye to Rachel, who returns to Kenilworth for the weekend to attend a big Festival with Kath and Anto, before they leave for holidays in Spain, and she returns to Arizona. It looks like the next week will be somewhat cooler and wetter as the month long drought comes to an end. Rachel was a little distressed to arrive home to temperatures not much cooler than Phoenix, so she deserves a some more temperate weather. Just being back in a leafy green climate for a month has, nevertheless been a big consolation for her. She's not a hot climate girl like big sister and Dad. 

I couldn't see her off from the bus station, as I had a lunchtime funeral at St John's followed by a burial at Radyr cemetery, next to St John's Danescourt. It's been lovely having her here. I wish it had been for longer, or for good. She's not happy living in Arizona and it's a struggle to get work, so naturally I worry about her a great deal. One day maybe, when Jasmine is old enough not to need Mum around all the time, she'll return and stay.

Apart from her amazing solo gig at the Apothecary, the time she spent last week in Kenilworth in Anto's recording studio was most fruitful. She's returning with two superb music tracks to release and promote. It's 'cast your bread on the waters' time.

  

   

Easter reunion

I wasn't called on to celebrate at St John's yesterday, as there are no weekday services in Easter week, to free the Parish clergy to take time off, so I had a lazy morning, with a walk around the park in the afternoon, without taking a rubbish collecting bag with me, for a change. I collected and binned half a dozen bottles and cans during my hour's walk anyway, but the park was unusually tidy after the Easter weekend and bank holiday.

I drove over to Ely for a bereavement visit at six, relating to the first of two funerals I'll be taking in St German's next week. Unusually, both are for people in their sixties, i.e. just a bit younger than me. Most of those I do are of people ten to twenty years older than me, as the average lifespan has risen so much during my lifetime in ministry.

I went to St John's city Parish Church for the midday Eucharist this morning, and a lunch date with my Romanian friend Dr. Laura Ciobanu, on a flying visit to see old friends and colleagues in Cardiff. I missed the bus that would have taken me there in time for the start of the service, and sat quietly in the nave, resisting the temptation (and the invitation of the Vicar) to make a disruptive late entry. It's better sometimes just to sit quietly and receive in silence.

Laura and I ate and chatted in the church tea room, re-branded 'The TeaSpot' these days. I'm glad to see it's open regularly again, with new volunteer teams. Vicar Sarah Rowland Jones and Curate Rhian Lineker shared the service, as Sarah's voice was cracking up after a busy few weeks. She recruited me to take a midweek Eucharist on her behalf when both of them are away in the first week of May. That'll be nice. Many of those still attending were regulars when I was the Vicar there - already seven years ago at the end of this month. It's always a pleasure to go there and be greeted by friends, old like me.

It's good to see there's been an exhibition of prints on themes taken from the Stations of the Cross in the north aisle exhibition area these past few weeks by local artist Wendy Batey Roberts. The aisle also still hosts a charity card shop in November and December, and church social events. Getting rid of old redundant chairs to clear the space and keep it free of clutter during my time was well worth the effort, though the credit for taking the initiative and maintaining the area clutter free belongs to organist Phil Thomas. The cleared north aisle came in handy for storing organ pipes during the period when the Father Willis instrument was being restored to its early glory, It's still going strong and the monthly Friday organ recitals continue, with healthy audiences.

After parting company with Laura at three, I wondered around the shops aimlessly for a while, then headed home for tea and a dull evening in front of the telly.

A special announcement on a special day

An early start to the day, with a celebration of the eight o'clock at St Catherine's. There were ten of us present, including Clare. Then, after a second breakfast, the Sunday Mass at St Germans, with three dozen people, remembering Hamid's baptism on this day at St German's last year. He still hasn't been deported, and is living with his sister's family in Perry Bar, regularly attending St John's Parish church. They seem to have come to terms with his journey of faith, so different from theirs. Later on Facebook there were photos of Hamid in church at St John's this morning, being blessed by the Vicar during the Mass of the Baptism of Christ. That certainly brought a smile to my face.

At the end of the service, Area Dean, Canon Bob Capper arrived to deliver the announcement of a new incumbent for the Parish of St German & St Saviour. Fr Phelim O'Hare, our local Team Vicar here in Canton Benefice. It's a great appointment. He's a very experienced priest, and having worked in his earlier ministry in Belfast, he has experience of a similar kind of urban community environment. This will serve him well. When he starts his new ministry, I'll have worked myself out of a (locum) job for the third time in the past four years. I'm likely be helping out somewhat more in Canton Benefice when the vacancy starts, right on my doorstep. Even so, there are still three vacancies in Spain where I've done locum duty, still to be filled, so the opportunities to continue in this kind of ministry won't disappear any time soon.