An Emissary from the East

For a long time I've wanted to replace our 'best white' set of vestments. The existing set, made by Mary our long-departed ex-nun sacristan in the 1980s, betrays her unaccountable fondness for gold lamé, and doesn't have a maniple. These days I feel semi-naked if I don't have a maniple. My own 'old gold' set is fine, but a) it's mine, b) it's a bit threadbare, and c) it's Roman-style so some, like our former diocesan bishop, might gib a bit at using it, though not everyone is as fussy. (Just to pre-empt any queries, in Church terms 'white' includes gold, silver, cream, and all stops in between).

When the war started I remembered that Yulia whose Etsy shop EkklesiaStore I've bought stuff from before was based in Ukraine, so as an expression of hope and solidarity I thought I'd order some fabric. Mat. Yulia was brilliant, as I expected, but the parcel, having found its way from Zhytomyr quite rapidly, sat so long in a warehouse in Lviv that I'd really given up on it ever getting here, and thought a missile from Mr Putin had probably incinerated it along with a collection of Ukrainian postal staff. But suddenly it started to move again and this morning it arrived - tat, all the way from a war zone.

'I'm very ashamed of the long delivery', says Mat. Yulia, who's married to an Orthodox priest, Fr Ivan. 'Thank you for your patience and kindness. Thank you for your prayers. God protects us from all dangers. May God protect you!' He's certainly been casting an eye over this package from a place of hazard.