Home again to a party

After our fifth and final cooked English breakfast start to the day, we set out for the train station with enough time to spare for a ten minute stop in the small park on the south facing headland. It looks over the Tenby course and the woodland behind South Beach. Battery Road, along the ridge still has some of its ancient cannons punctuating the route, This was the natural first line of defence against invaders from land or sea, once upon a time.

The single coach train took us to Carmarthen and then on along the coast to Swansea, where the new Olive Green liveried GWR train to London Paddington starts its journey. Next year these Japanese made hybrid trains will run from Cardiff to London powered electrically. From Cardiff to Swansea, the trains will switch to diesel-electric traction, thanks to a miserable short sighted penny pinching government decision. 

Ironically, a short section of electrified track will have to be installed just a few hundred metres outside Swansea station, to the site of the maintenance engineering depot built of HItachi to serve the new fleet of trains, probably before the Cardiff-Swansea electrification plan was scrapped. Along with the government's refusal to proceed with development of either a Severn Barrage or a Swansea tidal lagoon, both capable of generating huge amounts of 'green' energy, it's clear that a London English centred government has no interest in enabling Wales to stand on its own feet economically. It's a miserable state of affairs to say the least.

We got home just before three, which gave me time to unpack and tidy myself up before walking to Llys Esgob for the Bishop of Llandaff's garden party for retired clerics. I got the impression, from the mounain of cakes and sandwiches left over that it was less well attended than last year. It was so good to see Fr Graham and Eleri there, and Fr Hywel, amongst others. The Bishop said that Canton should hear about a new Team Rector in a week or so, as they are now taking up references. By the time the new incumbent is licensed, Emma will be starting maternity leave, so the Parish will still have an extended period with just one full time priest. The Bishop didn't seem as concerned about the impact of this on the Benefice as I am. Well, as long as I can't go abroad, I'm happy to continue plugging gaps. I still have no idea when the surgeon will discharge me as fit to travel.

When I got back home, Clare and Ann were out, so I started cooking what turned into a paella, with the portions of hake that were thawing a bit too slowly. I got a telling off for that from Clare, but the paella turned out just find, even if it wasn't on the menu du soir. 

Ah, back to a normal comfortable bed tonight. What a relief!

St German's Advent Welcome to Bishop June

For the second week in a row, I celebrated and preached for a said Eucharist at St Catherine's, only this time it was at eight o'clock, and there were ten of us. I met Dylan, the third ordinand to be placed here for part time on-the-job training with St Padarn's Institute, which replaced St Michael's College Llandaff as the Church in Wales' ordination training centre last year. As a native Welsh speaker from near Llangollen, he spent the first half of his first year at Eglwys Dewi Sant, and is now getting quite a different, more common experience of settled urban Parish life in a benefice of Canton.

It started snowing during breakfast, but the temperature wasn't yet low enough for to cause problems on the roads, so rather than leave early and take the bus / no bus risk to get there on time, I drove over to St German's to join the congregation and Fr Phelim in welcoming our new diocesan Bishop June Osborne, presiding and preaching for the fisrt time. I was pleased to have an opportunity to meet her at last, and to see how happy people were on this historic occasion. She preached an encouraging and thoughtful sermon about prophets as solitary people standing apart from crowd in order to deliver the message of God. The future, under her fresh and different style of leadership will be interesting, not just to observe from the sidelines, but also to participate in. 

In our briefest of conversations, I raised with her the matter of the role of retired clerics in the life and work of the Diocese, and she said that she was aware of the extent of this, and intends to look afresh at what potential contribution might be made by the ranks of used aged volunteers. Given that many of us are fitter and active for much longer in life, but happy to have the freedom of a pensioner's life, there may be more we can do, as part of our Christian stewardship of time and talents, and be seen as part of the bigger strategic plan. Well, we'll see.

Later in the afternoon, I headed from home to the Stenier School in Llandaff North, for the school Community Choir's third pre Christmas concert. Despite the weather the audience was bigger, and the choir did very well indeed, singing a variety of material in Latin, Welsh and Old Engish. They were more confident, more cohesive, and thus clearer in delivery. My first carol singing opportuniy of the year, when in times past I'd have gone through half a dozen Carol services by now, and for this reason it was that much more a fresh enjoyable experience.
   

Memorable Magdalene's Day

This morning, Bishop June Osborne was being enthroned in Llandaff Cathedral, and remembering her with thanksgiving prayer was a duty happily done. Later, it was good to see photos on social media and quotes from her address. I'd really like to read the whole thing, but haven't been able to find it on-line so far. It's great that she chose the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles for this landmark occasion in Llandaff diocesan history. Celebration of Mary Magdalene's feast day disappeared from the Book of Common Prayer in 1552, only to reappear in subsequent 19th and 20th century revisions across the Anglican Communion. Recently the Pope has upgraded the festive status of Mary Madgalene to the same rank as that of the Apostles, and the Roman Church has adopted her Orthodox title 'Apostle to the Apostles'. About time too, and the same about the ministry and leadership of women in the church. 'In Christ there is no male nor female'. Funny how that has been ignored for so long.

I was amused to see that a small group of fans camped on the pavement overnight outside the Plaza de Toros, in anticipation of this evening's concert by Vanessa Martin. I wondered where they came from for this ordeal, and why. It's something I've seen often enough outside the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena before a celebrity gig, and it's hard to see the point of it. From mid morning, the sound and stage crew were in evidence, along with some members of the band, testing and balancing their equipment. Occasionally there's be a burst of song, whether live or rehearsed, it was hard to tell. It was just loud. By the time I went for a walk around town, the fast food stalls were setting up to feed people queuing to be let in.

I walked to the far side of the old town, and took some photographs of the barrio where the church of Nuestra Señora de la Peña is located, closest to the Rio Guadalmedina (which our guide at the Flamenco Museum told me means 'City River' in Arabic. What's left of the northern aspect of the mediaeval town wall is in the sector also. In this barrio there's an interesting number of modern buildings, discrete, minimalist in their appearance, some apartments, others business or artistic workshops by the looks of it. Some remaining older tenement buildings are ripe for renovation, some being worked on to retain the facades and make entirely new interiors.

It's as if there's an architectural debate going on about here what can be done to make something different of a decaying area. There are some striking contrasts between plain modern facades and those which are a century or two older. It's different from the nearby Lagunas barrio where a rearguard action seems to be taking place between grass roots conservationists and enterprising modernisers.. Well, that's my impression. How it all holds together in the grand city centre plan I have no idea. So much depends on who owns what, and who in power can be persuaded to do what.

On this excursion, I took some photos of the Interactive Music and Flamenco Museums that I failed to get on the day we visited them. Before returning to the apartment, I walked up the Gibralfaro to the mirador to get a few photos of stage arrangements in the Plaza de Toros. The music was audible loud and clear from on high. Concert goers were filing into the arena to grab their places as I called in at SuperSol for a few last minute weekend purchases.

I noticed in the arena bull-pen a couple of dozen back-clad security officials assembled for a briefing before the action started. At this point, all was quiet, preparations concluded. Shortly after sunset the support band struck up. An hour later the main act began. It wasn't as loud as the Queen concert, and it was only as loud as anticipated, until just after midnight, when the volume was turned down. Soon after this, it was all over, and by then I was nearly asleep, thankfully.

The irritating part for me was that the star singer wasn't, to my ear, pitch accurate against the backing band. This could be due to the acoustic impact of being in a circular building framed by tower blocs affecting the sound emanating from the building, as opposed to what's heard on stage. But, it's not unusual at really loud concerts, or in a studio setting, where performers can hear each other is through ear pieces, channelling their microphone output through a mixing desk. It's a distressing experience for a performer to listen to a recording of themselves in these conditions after the event. Anyway, glad it's all over now. It could have been worse.

Habemus episcopam

Naturally, there's been a fair amount of speculation this past few uncertain weeks about when we'd hear of the appointment of a new Bishop of Llandaff. I'd discussed this on the phone and by text message with my friend Martin, last night, and was quite surprised mid morning to receive from him a text that was simply the name of someone I didn't know 'June Osborne', but before I could get around to asking him why, I had to leave for the midweek Eucharist at St John's. Over a cup of coffee after the service, I looked at Twitter on my phone, and realised this is the name of our new Bishop, just announced. What a surprise! Given the disappointment surrounding the failed episcopal election and painful controversy over the way the Bench of Bishops dealt with the aftermath, their choice was quite unexpected. 

She is one of the CofE's senior and most gifted cathedral Deans not to have been made a Bishop, just like Jeffery John, asked for by Llandaff electors, but ruled out of further consideration by the Bench. Both have contributed significantly to Anglican debate on faith and sexuality during their careers. Back in 1989, she was commissioned to produce a report for the Archbishops of Canterbury and York when she was an Oxbridge college chaplain. Today the Osborne Report would be regarded as respectable liberal mainstream, but back then, it was distinguished because it was suppressed, generating its own kind of controversy at the time. It wasn't finally published until 2012. To some in the higher echelons of today's Established CofE, she would perhaps still be regarded as too liberal to be Bishop material. But not it seems, too liberal for appointment to the diocese of Llandaff. 

Appointing a female Bishop will no doubt precipitate a crisis of faith for traditionalists of evangelical and anglo-catholic conviction, but for the majority, hopefully, this is hardly a problem, and the fact that she comes to the diocese with such a good reputation as an inspiring church leader is most encouraging. Let's hope and pray that she can connect well with those electors whose hopes were dashed, who were left feeling hurt, frustrated and disregarded by the way the final decision was reached.

After lunch I had a GP appointment, to try and figure out the reason for a late night reaction last Sunday evening to something I'd eaten earlier in the day. It was very similar to the incident I had on a Sunday morning after breakfast when I was serving the Malaga chaplaincy last September, a sudden rise in blood pressure, pulse and temperature, lasting about half an hour and diminishing as quickly as it arrived, leaving no after-effect, apart from concern, as if my body had eliminated a poison. 

Anyway, the doctor didn't think it was an allergic reaction, as this tends to happen soon after eating something the body doesn't like. So, a few blood tests and another ECG were ordered, so see what, if anything, has changed in my metabolism. The more I thought about it, the one thing that was different about the day's food was, unusually I'd eaten nuts at each meal, peanut butter for breakfast, walnuts with cheese for dessert after lunch, the last of my birthday Simnel cake for tea with almond based marzipan. None of these affect me normally, but I started to wonder if my ageing digestive was reacting to being overwhelmed with an excess of nuts, though not with the usual form of indigestion.

I remember being told by an acupuncturist several years ago that the digestive system weakens with age, can cope with less and works slower. I can't complain, it's stood me well for three score years and ten, plus. Time to review accepted healthy eating habits, just in case I'm overlooking something that's less than beneficial.