Sunlit Advent Sunday

Advent is thought of as a journey from darkness to light, but it was lovely to have sunlight streaming into St German's throughout this morning's Mass. There were thirty of us present. After the service, Prince-Farai, who was baptized last Sunday came and reminded me that I'd promised to give him a tour of the statues in church and introduce him to the saints. I think his mum must have been talking to him about them in the meanwhile.

I got home more or less on time afterwards. Traffic was flowing well on the return trip, perhaps because there's two way traffic past the Castle again, and that eases congestion on peripheral roads around the city centre. After lunch I went for a brisk walk in the park for half an hour to wake me up ready to drive back to St German's for the first of the Advent evening services. 

The sun was setting by the time we started, shedding golden light in the nave through the west window. It was just perfect for the blessing and kindling of the evening lights, or would have been, if the device used to light the candles hadn't died on David after he'd lit the one on the Advent wreath. We had a meditative pause while he found a working one and then continued. It was completely dark by the time we finished. The chancel, where we held the Office looked beautiful, was the only part of the church illuminated.

I decided to try the return route along Castle Street instead of my usual one, and that worked well even though there was quite a lot of traffic. It's certainly better in the dark, although the southern route I have been using this past year is better for the outbound journey. I got back at five, just as the Parish Advent Carol service was starting at St Catherine's. It had started raining and I didn't fancy walking there and getting wet. I certainly couldn't have made it back in time to sing in the choir, especially unrehearsed.

After supper we watched two interesting antiques programmes, and then the last episode of 'Show Trial', whose ending was, as Clare remarked "predictable' except there was a dash of ambiguity in the last scene, had the acquitted party got a way with a complex deceit or was she just winding up her lawyer for fun? Which may suggest a series two somewhere in the future

Congestion miscalculation

I went to bed far too late last night and woke up having lost at least an hour's sleep. These days I find that I don;t get along so well on less than eight hours a night.

The bright sunny blue sky weather continues, but it's deceptive. I went out without a top coat and hat to walk down to St John and celebrate the Eucharist this morning, and felt the impact of a chilling breeze. The loss of sleep affected me as well. At the beginning of the service I twice reverted to the modern language rite instead of the traditional one mid-sentence! I had to re-start the Gloria, as people were rather confused, but thereafter I was OK. The funny experience gave me a pretext to talk about how the Word is communicated despite language confusion and even through faltering broken speech, thanks to the Spirit speaking heart to heart, whatever else is going on.  

Again we were thirteen people. We would have been fourteen, but one lady came, and as she was getting water to freshen up the flowers, she dropped her hearing aid into the sink, and was compelled to return home and dry it out immediately, hoping that it wasn't by damaged by the inundation. She has difficulty hearing, even with a hearing aid. It's one of the trials of old age which so far I have been spared, except for the occasional miserable wax blockage. 

With Clare in school this morning, I cooked lunch on returning home, and then had an hour and a half of a siesta which perked me up, ready for my walk in the park. Opposite the riding centre stables is a very rich area of well cared for mature allotments. It hosts many different garden bird species, more than any other part of the green zone at the heart of the city. It's a real treat to stand under the trees by the hedgerow and listen to chaffinches, wrens, robins, blackbirds, thrushes, starlings plus other birds singing I still cannot identify. I made me appreciate just how fortunate I am still to enjoy good hearing. I had a few good lucky bird photos too. This one was the best: a missel thrush, I think.

Having had a moan about traffic congestion caused by Castle Street restrictions yesterday, I was pleased to see an article on just this subject posted on this morning's Wales Online website. I must get busy and write to Caro Wild our local ward councillor who has been involved in road management changes this past year. While the objective is to reduce pollution in city centre hot-spots the solutions tried so far simply lead to the distribution of congestion and queues to other inner city zones, with longer journeys and delays leading to more pollution distributed more widely but a general increase in the carbon foot of city traffic associated with slow moving traffic.

With preparations for tomorrow's funeral complete after supper, I decided to go to bed really early, relax and watch a couple of episodes of 'Non Uccidere', in an effort to catch up of missed sleep. Hopefully I'll be on better form tomorrow, when we're having our second covid jabs just after ten. It's terrible to see the rate of virus spread in India at the moment a third of a million a day in the absence of universal lock-down (maybe impossible to enforce anyway) plus the continuation of mass gatherings for pilgrimage rituals and political rallies. Inadequate reporting of fatalities in some impoverished regions may mean that the true scale of covid deaths may never be known. 

Mass religious gatherings would be hard to stop anyway, as pious people are often stubborn with it, but political rallies could simply be cancelled by the prime minister. It's hard to fathom such foolishness, and we've seen so much of this in the past year. So many avoidable deaths ultimately due to egotistical populist leadership.

People on the streets

I was up early again this morning, and ready to leave home for a visit to the church of St Dyfrig and St Samson in Grangetown for the first of my interregnum duties there at nine. It's only ten minutes drive, but the threat of early road closures occasioned by this morning's 10k Kidney Wales fundraising fun run, prompted an early start, just in case.

There was a congregation of eighteen 60-90 year olds plus a couple of grandchildren, welcoming, cheerful and lively participants in the liturgy. The church hosts the local Romanian Orthodox Liturgy, now weekly, following straight after, but there was time for coffee and a chat before I set out for St Catherine's.

By that time, road closures and diversions had started, and traffic queues, meant that the return trip took me nearly twenty five minutes. As this left me rather late to join Clare in the congregation, I went straight home instead, started cooking some meat for lunch and then went out for a walk.

I hope there are no more road closures on other Sundays this month when I'm in Grangetown and then returning to take another service at St Catherine's. Given the amount of weekend shopping traffic coming into the city, road closures due to sporting events are disruptive for many people not involved as participants or spectators. All part of 'live and let live' in urban life I suppose.

The Sikh community was also due to make a procession from Tudor Street to the Castle today in honour of the birthday of Guru Nanak, and the anniversary of their Gurdwara. Roads would be closed for this too, though not for so long. Last weekend was the Gay Pride procession around town to City Hall. There were Christians involved in that for sure, but as individuals rather than in a group. It's been many decades since there was last a specifically Christian religious procession of any size through the city centre.

Walking in the park again later in the afternoon I caught sight of a group of eight Missel Thrushes which is rather unusual. Normally you're luck to see a pair  I later learned that they tend to migrate south in groups to over-winter.

A world tour starting in Cardiff

I celebrated the Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning. I drafted a sermon for Sunday, and then in the afternoon went into town to look for a new camera bag. I found just what I needed in the shop where I habitually go to buy cameras and accessories kit, Cardiff Camera Centre, a family firm with two shops and an internet store as well.

Road closures were already under way when I arrived, as there was a concert in the stadium, the start of Rhianna and Jayzee's world tour. An armed response police team was located prominently at the entrance, for public reassurance after last year's Manchester stadium bombing.

The streets were unusually busy for a Wednesday, and lots of people were relaxing out doors, chatting drinking, either at tables or standing in the street. The only jarring note was the sound of breaking glass, as a few people accidentally dropped or toppled a drink. For some strange reason, the public safety injunction applying on match days, that drinks be served only in disposable plastic wasn't in force, and it meant that broken glass was being trodden under foot. Not very desirable in the sandal wearing season. 

Whenever there's a large crowd in town, discarded rubbish accumulates, especially after normal Council working hours, so the quality of the environment soon deteriorates. I makes me wish our city was more like Malaga where street sweepers are numerous and work in shifts from early morning until late at night, and take a pride in keeping the streets clean. The sight of broken glass is rare. How anybody with safety oversight as part of their job, whether Council, Licensee or Police didn't expect a seventy thousand pre-concert drinking crowd in summer to be outdoors is a mystery to me. 

More episodes of NCIS watched on catch-up this evening. Interesting to see how a change of actors to reflect greater inclusivity is reflected in squad room personnel. A Latino, a black Brit, an Afghan and added prominence to female leads among them.

  

A low key start to Paschal festivity

This morning we drove over to Bristol to visit Amanda. It was marvellous to see her in good form, in spite of her physical disability. She'd cooked a delicious quiche for lunch. No wonder her everyday carers enjoy working with her and admire her efforts to remain as creative and independent as she can. The last few years of coming to terms with her limitations have been really difficult for her, but what I find amazing is the way she's re-engaged with her Christian faith, tackling a Lenten study programme, and she's receiving Communion monthly, thanks to the Parish clergy of St Stephen's Southmead.

We get back home with time to spare, for me to prepare for the Easter Vigil at St German's and travel there. I was annoyed to drive along Cowbridge Road East to the junction with Cathedral Road, only  to find that transit of the the city centre via Stuttgartstrasse was blocked by road closures. I was obliged to make a U-turn and drive south around the city centre to get to Adamsdown. Fine. I know the route. But what about any out-of-town driver unused to negotiating their way around the city centre due to closures occasioned by sporting events in town? 

All that was required of the team implementing road closures was a Diversion notice at the previous junction with Neville Street, to avoid traffic chaos at the next intersection. Not a big ask, but sadly typical of the disregard for those having to cope with disruption caused by sporting road closures. The municipal alibi is that these events are good for the economy, but no account is ever presented publicly on the cost to the economy from pollution, traffic disruption and shoppers deterred from entering the centre any time there's a match on whether they're aware of this in advance or not.

Anyway I had allowed plenty of time to get to St German's, as I usually do. We were just eighteen for the Vigil. I can remember being less than half that number when I was at St John's city parish church. It's not a popular service. Perhaps most potential attenders are simply too busy getting ready for Easter to make the effort. Unless you're a member of an Orthodox Christian congregation. For them, this is one of the year's greatest events. And this year unusually our dates of Easter co-incide. Will we ever agreed on a common date for Easter I wonder.

I arrived after home after the start of the BBC Four episode of 'Department Q', an altogether dark and violent affair, pointing the finger at pathological behaviour among the ranks of those who are rich and powerful. It's not an unusual theme in contemporary drama,  but social reality seems to catch up on fiction somewhat more slowly.