We had an amazing weekend here last week. It was our Feast Day, of course. The Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls right in the middle of August, which is not particularly the time of year on which one might choose to mark a congregation’s Matronal Day. In the last couple of years we’ve marked it a little better than we did when I was first here. Last year we had a special choral service on the day it fell, which was a Saturday. This year we could celebrate on the Sunday, which was grand.

What better way to celebrate a Feast than to baptise a couple of folk. And so it was that a very young member of the conregation was baptised alongside someone who has had a few decades to think about it. “Do you baptise adults?” I’m sometimes asked – you bet we do.

Then in the Evening, the first Choral Evensong of this choir term though we had in fact had a special bonus on Saturday with an extra Evensong to commemorate SS Wesley’s 200th anniversary too. They were both wonderful services. The big tubthumpers from SS Wesley contrasting nicely with Sumsion in A and Totus Tuus on Sunday evening.

Then an excellent clergy meeting on Monday morning to plan some extra events and workshops for the period between now and Advent. There will be more details in due course, but expect a bit of prayer and poetry orientated spirituality, a (very) basic introduction to the Bible, something about faith and photography, various getting to know you sessions and plenty of music and liturgy to carry us through to the end of the Church year.

I hope that at least something within this mix will be delivered over the internet rather than (or perhaps as well as) in a face to face format too.

How does all that sound?