Last Easter at Lamford

The Bishop, at his own suggestion, came to celebrate the Paschal Liturgy at Lamford at 6am last Sunday - what a long time ago it already seems. It was properly dark outside the church this year, and having twelve members of the congregation for baptism or confirmation made it a special occasion. Not everything went completely right, naturally: no matter how long you prepare for a liturgy there's always something you've forgotten and usually something that goes haywire. This time it was a link of the thurible chain coming open which meant we had to abandon it, me tripping over a note in the Exsultet (at least we don't sing it in Latin), and discovering as I was about to read the Gospel that nobody had attended to the Gospel book since Palm Sunday. I had to grab a service booklet from someone and read it from that.

The bacon and sausages at breakfast were a cut above the usual fare, though.

All the Holy Week services have had slightly higher attendances this year, with the exception of Mid-Day Prayers on Holy Saturday (which only attracts a handful anyway) and, strangely, the 10am Mass on Easter Day, which was noticeably down. 244 communicants last year and about 300-320 in church, 217 this out of a congregation of about 250-70. Nothing to do afterwards, thankfully.

This will be my last Easter in Lamford as my curacy comes to an end. Next year it will be - somewhere else.