Perspectives from on high

We went to the Parish Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning. Emma preached in cheerleader mode (a role I know well from locum duties), encouraging people to continue working together in the way they've found they can under Fr Mark's leadership. I guess we rely on inspiration being given a voice rather than coming from a set of raw ideas, so it's natural for people to feel uncertain about how they will continue without a beloved pastor and guide. What harder to notice, however, is the momentum generated by effective ideas and ways of working together in a community. Cheerleading in this sense, is about acknowledging and affirming who we are, what we've become on the journey being made together. 

After the service, I went straight home to cook lunch, while Clare went down to the Riverside Market on Taff Embankment, as it's the 20th anniversary of its foundation. It's rare that we go there together nowadays, as we get a bag of organic veggies delivered by the Farmers Market to Chapter Arts Centre for us to collect every Wednesday and any special cheeses we can get from a new stall that's now going strong in Cardiff Market. 

I had an unexpected email from Fr Mark after lunch, asking if I could step in urgently and officiate at St John's monthly Evensong, as something unexpected had come up. How nice! I don't remember when I last officiated at an Evensong - oh yes I do. It was the end of August last year at the chapel of St Michael in Caux, 600m above Lac Leman. The service is an annual event in a beautiful turn of the 20th century Anglican building subsequently taken on by the local Vaudois protestant parish. Sadly it was impossible to organise this again during my recent locum stay. I was quite sad about that, as it's a wonderful venue for Evensong, with the setting sun streaming in over the Savoyard Alpes across the lake, bathing the interior in golden light. You just have to sing the Phos Hilaron.

Anyway, apart from the organist, I had a congregation of two, with a long OT passage from Joshua delineating the boundaries of the tribal territories to be occupied after crossing the Jordan. It's full of hard to pronounce place names, so the man who usually enjoys reading asked if he could read the NT lesson instead. As I read, that long inventory of locations, I found myself imagining flying over the terrain in a helicopter, and shared this thought with the faithful few subsequently. It occurred to me that today's mapping technology privileges us to get an overview of any place on earth in ways not available to our forebears, and thereby able to bring alive for us a passage of scripture which in times past would have been excruciatingly dull and unprofitable to listen to.

Afterwards the other attendee asked if I'd seen a recent programme about the Lebanon in which the presenter had gone up in a hot air balloon to view an historic landscape, as part of explaining the geography behind the politics and sociology. Yes, privileged we are indeed today! But will all these new perspectives and information about the world we live in help us better to answer the problems we face, I wonder?

    

Poetic discovery

The second Sunday of Advent Eucharist at St German's this morning, numbers down a little due to the rotten weekend weather. Hamid, an asylum seeker from Pakistan was in the congregation again. His spiritual journey led to family rejection and took him away from his homeland, in his endeavour to study the bible and learn more about Christianity. He has been coming to St German's since he was sent to a Cardiff hostel, pending a case appeal, a few months ago. His life will be at risk if he goes home. He's asked us to write to his solicitor to confirm that he is attending church regularly.

Happily he's found an experience of Christian worship at St German's that speaks to his contemplative side. Punjabi speaking Christian communities introduced him to the Bible in his mother tongue, but their noisy, exuberant style of worship has limited appeal for him. Happily, it's the beauty, peace and orderly dignity of worship that appeals. He's asked for baptism, and we're aiming for this on the feast of Christ's baptism in January. It's going to be a challenge, given his limited English, but it's clear his heart is set on this. 

For the first time in many weeks Clare went to Riverside Farmers' Market after church, before lunch to stock up with some favourite cheeses, including mature Caerphilly, which to my mind ra

nks with Parmigiano for flavour, eaten on its own with a glass of the right red wine or grated and sprinkled to enhance a cooked dish. She's been making her own mincemeat this weekend, and the house is full of heavenly Christmas aromas.

Having done my DuoLingo Spanish revision exercises for the day, I set about hunting for my copy of the poems of St John of the Cross on the various bookshelves around the house. It's a bi-lingual edition with an classic English translation by Roy Campbell, which I acquired over thirty years ago. I wanted to see how much of the Spanish I can now decipher. It's really time I started reading things to improve my comprehension, as well as practising reading aloud for fluency. 

It took a while to find, but in the process, I discovered on another bookshelf a bi-lingual collection of poems by Pablo Neruda, given to us by a friend, some years ago, when we began spending time in Spain. I was delighted to realise that I could read and follow his work far better than I'd anticipated. There is a directness and simplicity to his writing which makes it more accessible than the Renaissance language of St John of Cross - new sources of inspiration and enjoyment to savour.

  

New cheese discovery

Three services to take in the Parish this morning. First, the eight o'clock and then the nine fifteen at St John's, followed by a dash up to St Catherine's for the ten thirty. It was good to find I could still do three in a row without feeling exhausted afterwards. We then went to the Riverside Farmers Market got get our week's veggies and came home with a another variety of cheese from our regular Caerphilly cheese maker, called Celtic Promise. This version uses the same basic product, but steeps it in white wine as part of the maturing process. It acquires a semi-soft creamy texture, and distinctive flavour, reminiscent of some Franco-Suisse Jura cheeses we discovered  when we lived there. What a treat!

After a late lunch and lazy afternoon, we walked our usual circuit around Bute Park before settling down to watch the opening Gymanfa Ganu of the National Eisteddfod, being held this year in Llanelli. We'll be visiting on Friday. I spotted Fr John Webber singing away in the gymanfa congregation. He too is doing locum duties here in Canton Benefice while the clergy are on holiday. Bishop Wyn of St David's gave the blessing at the end, in his characterstically concise manner. It was good to see him, albeit briefly. We were in St Mike's at the same time, forty five years ago.