One of the problems about using a PDA thingy is that it doesn’t tell you about important things like Bank Holidays – or Christmas and Easter for that matter. So they jump out and surprise one.
Anyway, we’ve been celebrating with Charles Severs at All Saints, St Andrews, his 50 years as a Lay Reader. That time has included a period as Port Chaplain for Mission to Seafarers and all sorts of other things – what Charles calls a ‘journey of grace’. All Saints – with its rich tradition of worship – is a great place for a celebration. But I sometimes think that the boat girl has a rather better idea of what is happening than I do. I take what is handed to me, do with it what I am told and hand it back with a good grace. Last weekend, I succeeded in leaving behind in two different places mitre [1] and cope [1]. My score was better this weekend but I am still short of a cope.
Tomorrow morning it’s the red eye to Glasgow by 8 am for a Daily Service Broadcast on Radio 4 Long Wave – real echoes of the Home Service there. Got to get my Number 2 accent into gear.
Almost certainly the boatgirl there would have a better idea than many about the proceedings! I remember fondly those days when the DC herself was the boatgirl (and other things too) at All Saints. One of the members who could never accommodate herself to the idea of having any women in the sanctuary at all but who liked the DC as a person, used to say how she just closed her eyes when she saw the procession appearing from the sacristy and imagined that the DC was a man. Now there’s a thought for the day!