Easter Week blossom

I returned to St German's yesterday to celebrate the Wednesday morning Mass for nine people, but on this occasion no Tredegarville school children as it's still their Easter holiday time. Most of the congregation weren't there on Monday evening, so it was a pleasure to be reunited with a different small group of the faithful, who help make the church such a friendly welcoming place. 

After the service I went over the Splott to visit my old friend Graham Francis, who lives just around the corner from St Saviour's Parish Church, where he's happily made a home since his retirement a few years ago. He's living with stomach cancer nowadays and faces this truthfully, stoically with admirable courage. His energy level is much diminished, but not his interest in life, or ability to talk about this of mutual interest. We both share an interest in the variety of Christian groups from the Middle East and Asia that meet in South Wales, if not Cardiff itself. As I've been thinking lately with Roy Thomas about reviving the Spiritual Capital research project, it's great to have someone like Graham around who is a mine of current information as I'm hopelessly out of touch eleven years on from the last publication of our research data 

To be there on time I needed to cancel a clinic visit, but with a slow improvement I'm getting back to a state in which a daily visit isn't strictly necessary. We need to be careful not to run out of medical supplies at home, and with a weekend trip to Kenilworth coming up it was essential to check and stock up more than usual.

In the afternoon, I went to UHW to visit 92 year old Sheila, to whom I was introduced two years ago by Dr Laura Ciobanu, during her annual visit here from Romania. Laura arrives on Mayday, and we plan to meet. She's aware that Sheila hasn't long to live and had recently asked Laura to ask if I'd get in touch with her, as she'd like me to officiate at her funeral. Her son and daughter in law were at her bedside, but despite being frail and weak, she recognised me, and in a no nonsense way asked if I'd take the service, and proceeded to discuss the hymns she'd like. Although she'd only met me once, she said she thought we'd made a good connection at the time. I reassured her that I was willing and felt honoured to be entrusted with this task. And then, we said our farewells. She's due to go into the Holme Tower hospice in Penarth tomorrow, a lovely place to spend her last days in this world.

Today, Russell and Jacqui came over for an early lunch, unfortunately overlapping with my clinic visit. Coincidentally, the timing was just right for me to catch a 61 bus in both directions, so I wasn't away for long. The walk is part of my daily exercise regime and if I take a convenient bus, it's due to leaving it a bit late to leave the house and needing to be punctual. Not that it matters, as often the schedule runs late, especially in the afternoons. Anyway, I did get out for a walk in Llandaff Fields later in the afternoon. The leaves on the park's many chestnut trees are growing rapidly to full size and covered with tall white 'candle' blossoms. A magnificent sight. Pink and white cherry blossom has dropped this past few days due to wing and rain, their colour briefly transforming nearby grass. It's one of my favourite times of year.

Holy Week Wednesday - Spiritual Capital Cardiff revisited

I've had an exchange of text messages with Roy Thomas who's out in South Africa at the moment, we have been sharing thoughts about discerning vocation recently, but today we shared thoughts about a possible re-opening of the Spiritual Capital research project we ran together 2006-8.

Funnily enough, responses to Monday's Notre Dame fire got me reflecting again on the economic and social role of religious edifices and institutions in this post modern era. The majority may stay well away from church, yet the presence and activity of religious faith based things, still seems not to be a matter of indifference to everyone. Even if ideas and opinions on these matters can be ill-informed, they can't be ignored or barred from consciousness. They continue to pose questions that challenge our sense of self anf our values.

Thoughts about Spiritual Capital were particularly prompted by an invoice from internet service provider Servage for another two years registration of the sarcic.org.uk URL which was used as our project web page. It's still active, although it looks terribly dated, and a few of the links are broken. We used two Google blog sites as well. Both are still there, frozen in time. The steering group blog final entry was in mid July 2008. Entries on the Spiritual Capital blog petered out over the next eighteen months as I wound down towards retirement, with one stray entry two years later.

I gave up access details to Parish web assets, including the Spiritual Capital material, when I retired. St John's web presence has changed since then, and old stuff is unused. I found a written record of old access codes, and they still work, but Google's beefed up security protocol showed its worth. Neither my present IP address nor the devices were used then, so confirmation of my access privilege was automatically required from current keeper - St John's tower captain Bob Hardy. I emailed him, and he confirmed he'd received a security alert, and I reassured him of the reason for this surprise, while he is away on holiday. We'll see to it when he returns next week! Meanwhile I need to draft a way of linking current aspirations and interest in Spiritual with those last expressed over a decade ago to discuss with Roy.

After lunch, I went to the wound clinic, and then collected this week's veggie bag from Chapter, before walking down to Blackweir Bridge before supper. I saw a couple of baseball teams out on the Fields at match practice. Baseball came to Cardiff a century ago. It's not at big as cricket, but it has always had a core of keen followers. After a few days of cold weather, it's warming up again, so it's quite pleasant to be out and about,

As it's Holy Week in an interregnum, there are no mid-week morning Masses, just a single evening Mass for the Benefice. Tonight, we were at St Catherine's, with twenty in the congregation and ten in the choir, as predicted by Clive. This would work if all who attended mid-week services regularly in the morning were to come, but they don't. Some older people, though not all to be fair, aren't keen  to venture out after tea. If changing routine is a big effort, they miss out. It's a bit sad, but reflects a time of change. No news yet of a new Team Rector, the appointment process seems still to be a work in progress.