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Later in the day Evening Prayer is interrupted by a young man who comes through the darkness of the church to tell me he's decided to become a Christian as a result of going to a Traveller-oriented church meeting some miles away. It's not convenient for him to get there regularly, so he asks what time our services are. I listen to him and conclude that plunging him straight into the deep waters of a Swanvale Halt Sung Eucharist is probably not what he needs at this stage, so I say I will make enquiries locally and get back to him.
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I head off for an evening at the Air Cadets to go through the enrolment promise with nine new recruits aged 12 to 14 or so. We are wedged into a tiny classroom as I go through the things they will have to say. They're brilliant, actually, and I have a great time, quite apart from what they may think of it all. When I mention that when Mr Trump becomes President of the US he will also have to make public promises, they all groan and cough. It takes me a while to twig that the most articulate of them, disguised in short hair and identikit combats, is a girl. It's rather exciting to have a group of teenagers listening to my every word, no matter how inadequate and bluffing those words sometimes are, and I must make sure it doesn't get too exciting. They are not my cadre of acolytes!
Ref Air Cadets, no doubt you know the old services slang for a padre in the forces, a "sky pilot?"
ReplyDeleteAh yes, I had indeed heard that. Some years ago a baptism couple came to see me and the father gave his 'rank, profession or occupation' as 'Sky engineer' which made me boggle a bit until he explained carefully as to a child that he worked for Sky and installed satellite TV systems. Since then I've always used that title as a description for someone with unrealistic plans and ideas about the future, as in, 'Derek's a nice bloke, but he's a bit of a sky engineer'.
ReplyDeleteThanks for excellent new epithet!
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