Sunday, November 08, 2009

Remembrance Sunday

At our Remembrance Sunday Sung Eucharist this morning, Andrew preached his first sermon. It was well received, as he has a nice clear voice and so could be heard by all our older members who are a bit hard of hearing. Even with a public address system and a hearing aid loop in use, speakers still have to think about projecting their voices or their speech will be more an indistinct noise at the back of the audience.

As Bill, our eldest war veteran, still housebound after a fall, the task of conducting the Act of Remembrance, just after Communion and right on time, fell to Oswald, our treasurer, who was in the Navy in the North Atlantic at the end of the Second World War.

After the service I drove up to Gerrard's Cross for a family gathering at Rachel's sister-in-law's house to celebrate Rachel's and Jasmine's birthdays, just three days apart. It was great to see her again. It's a year since she was last over from Canada. Clare drove down with Kath, Anto and Rhiannon, having looked after Rhi over the weekend while her parents were gigging in Lincolnshire. Owain couldn't join us as he was travelling home from a work conference in Bonn.

It was so delightful to see our two grandchildren playing together and enjoying each others company. Jasmine's no longer a toddler, but a cute little three year old, amazingly articulate and clear for her age - just like her nearly six year old cousin. Well, they belong to a family of great talkers, I guess.

As getting there for the party involved a three hour journey in each direction after taking two services I was very tired when we got home. Going there meant that I had to miss a PCC meeting, but having done the preparatory report for it, I was happy to entrust chairing it to Allan, knowing that he'd do a capable job, and also that the meeting would probably be more concise than if I was in charge. I'm far too lenient on participants to run brisk meetings.

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