The parish remains frozen, which has the good effect that meetings are continually cancelled, events postponed, and people can't get to see me after all. I've even had time to sit and think about Lent.
The night the snow came down was Epiphany. We'd planned a Sung Mass in the evening and my first thought was, gloomily, that we'd have to cancel. 'I don't see why everything has to stop', said our church secretary. 'It'll be fun coming to church in the snow.' Of course she wasn't coming anywhere near the place herself, but my resolve was stiffened and we went ahead. It was fun. It reminded me of the first time I attended St Mary de Castro in Leicester, stumping through the snow on the night of St Lucy's Day, 1991: the altar party outnumbered the congregation then, too.
This Sunday at the 8am I had a congregation of one. A very devout, deep-thinking lady, but one. 10am saw just over 50 turn up, but this was in contrast rather interesting. Because the older members of the church are less sure of themselves in icy conditions they stayed at home, while in return we got a couple of younger folk who normally attend other churches but didn't want to go further afield. As a result the age profile was hugely lower. It felt like a completely different place.
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