This is the Bridge over the Atlantic – at slack water just before the tide turns.
Shows what wonderful weather we have been having this year.
I have had a few emails today telling me how wonderful the service was at church yesterday. Everyone was keen to make sure I was missed, but it is also wonderful to hear how many people were involved in leading and participating. It was a joint service on Luing and apparently the singing had to be heard to be believed. Summer Suns are glowing…. they really are – here in Argyll. It seems that much of the rest of the country has had poor weather whereas we have been enjoying an unexpected boost of sunshine.
I want to say “Long may it continue….” but the weather charts show Lows sweeping in from the Atlantic. The trick is to make the most of today.
How wonderful not to be going anywhere on the M6, M25 or M62.
Living in Argyll has many advantages.
More reading – this time an article in the Church Times by Rev Giles Fraser on attitudes to clutter. He maintains that clutter in churches is symptomatic of a wider inefficiency in management structures. Instance the following quote, which made me laugh.
One of the besetting curses of church life is clutter. The three kings brought gold, frankincense and myrhh: the lovely Mrs Miggins brings empty jam-jars, dog-eared tracts on spirituality, and a half-broken chair that “might be useful to somebody, someday”. Things like this pile up in the dusty corners of the building, nobody quite knowing who has the authority to throw them out. This uncertainty transforms the side aisle into a store for junk. Regular churchgoers get used to it. Newcomers notice immediately.
It also made me a bit sad.
Email is wonderful – easy on the voice. It has been good to be in touch with our Lay Reader in the parish and he keeps me up to date with what is happening. He is enjoying taking the services etc and has risen to the challenge of weekly worship very well. He has a Hearing Dog called Ruby. She is an absolute star and is a great help with things like Children's Talks. I am told she enjoys being up front but is not too sure about being in the pulpit. Reminds me of a time last year, when I looked down the church and saw her head peeking round the corner of a pew.
We do get a nice class of congregation round here.
Gentle walks and reading seem to be the order of the day for recovery at the moment. But the latest novel was both disturbing and compelling. Under the Skin by Michel Faber. I don't want to spoil it for you if you have not read it and are so inclined; sufficient to say that it offers a worldview which is a useful antidote to the state we have found ourelves in.
Interestingly, this was lent to me by a member of the congregation.
Dare I say there is hope for my congregation yet?
A sudden screeching noise going on and on made the dog stop in her tracks today. I assumed it was an aeroplane but the dog knew better and was looking up into a twenty foot spruce. Then the mystery was solved, a large hooded crow flapped out of the branches in rather an ungainly fashion and gradually the noise hushed. He or she had been busy feeding the chicks in a large nest balanced precariously in the uppermost branches.
Strange to think of crows as caring parents rather than heartless scavengers.
Talking to plants has both an ancient and high-profile pedigree. (If the Prince of Wales can do it…..) Like many others, I am so appreciative of the pleasure that plants bring that I am pleased to pass the time of day with them. Lately though, I have taken to talking to the wild flowers in the verges close to the Manse. This is to encourage them to spread their seeds into the “wild” area of the garden. Mostly, country-dwellers fight to keep flowers of hedgerow and field away; I am keen for them to populate the grassed area which is looking a bit sad and green at the moment. The grasses may be nearly a foot high but there is little sign of seed-heads or colonisation by plants, despite scattering some wild flower seed.
Come on wild flowers: a warm welcome awaits you at Kilbrandon Manse.
For some reason I have not been able to access the web for a while. It is amazing how out of touch one feels. No emails collected, no blogs read, no extra news……
Thankfully, it is back to normal now.
I have just re-read yesterday's entry.
Surely I am not having Preaching Withdrawal Symptoms?
