Back to Work

Today was my first day back after the Easter Holiday. I hope to insert some missing days soon to fill in some of the gaps...

I had to get up early for the 8 o'clock service, which turned out to be a good thing since I picked up a notice sheet which informed me that Ken had died on Friday. He will be greatly missed. It was certainly useful to know this before going to Holy Cross where he had served as church warden.

The mood was quiet and reflective at Holy Cross. I presided at the 9 o'clock communion and then preached at the 9:45. The hymns were strangely appropriate even though I'd picked them over a week ago, and the story of Stephen had wonderful resonance. Both Ken and Stephen were people who sought to serve in practical ways, reaching out to people on the edge - often with food. We gave thanks for Ken this morning.

It was a bit of a shock to the system to leave Holy Cross and go to St Mary's at 11am for a big baptism service - a high energy show! The church was packed with visitors who needed to be given a real celebration - which we seemed to deliver. At 2pm I had to do the same at All Saints - three families, four children. It was important to deliver a BIG event for the five baptism families and their friends - but a bit of an emotional rollercoaster after the two services at Holy Cross...

I had three hours at home this afternoon. We all sat down for dinner and I watched last night's Doctor Who with the girls. It was a fairly blatant story about the very human habit of slavery - in one form or another - but it worked pretty well. After all, you can't go wrong if the episode has Ood in it. We learnt today that Ood have three brains: one in their head, one in their hands and one that they share in a collective consciousness. This is a great image to play with! They must cooperate and trust each other because if you are holding your brain in your hands you are pretty vulnerable... To what extent are we like Ood? There's a question to think about...

Growing Disciples was at 6:30pm. Mike's away so I had to lead it by myself. We all missed Ken's presence. He had been really enjoying this course. We had a good discussion about the cost of discipleship and went home. It's now 10pm and I am starting work on Voices. I must finish by tomorrow morning...

Oh I am glad to be back...
(And my sabbatical starts in 11 days...)