All Hallows' Eve

Friday 31st October 2014

What an evening sky behind the gnarled lichen-hung trees!
     We didn't mark the Eve of All Hallows in our churches today because we're not celebrating All Saints tomorrow (even though it will be 1st November) but on Sunday.

The next stage

Saturday 25th October 2014

Today we moved Molly and Indie from this beautiful autumn field to winter quarters where Indie will settle in with her mother before being weaned.

A varied Sunday

Sunday 19th October 2014

Artefacts from an exhibition in Falstone Village Hall
following the service in St Peter's to dedicate a new War Memorial plaque in memory of the men from the parish who died in both World Wars and to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War of 1914 -1918.

The service was followed by a buffet lunch in Falstone Village Hall for the whole congregation (of about a hundred).

[More on WW1 page]

The other services of my day were the Sung Eucharist at Bellingham (according to the Book of Common Prayer of 1662); the informal S.T.A.R.S (Sunday Toddlers And RelativeS) for the under-fives and their families; and an evening celebration of Holy Communion (according to the modern Common Worship service) back at St Peter's Falstone, quietly drawing the events of the day together.

 

After the fog

Friday 17th October 2014

It was a thick mist this morning that gave way to a warm afternoon.

It matched my state of mind this week, which my husband had likened to a snowstorm: too many demands had been made on my time and suddenly they had all melted away!

Back at the dumping ground

Tuesday 14th October 2014

Greenhaugh First School in St Aidan's Church for Harvest

After clearing up in church (and breaking an egg on the stone altar step), it was home to the dumping ground  --  which I tried to sort out whilst fielding phone calls, e-mails and visitors who needed to arrange a funeral, a christening, a wedding, an ecumenical card with information on Christmas services in all our churches...and a whole lot of other things which I have forgotten. 

Pause

Monday 13th October 2014









 

 

Autumn winds have been at work.  And so have I  --  so incessantly that there have been days when I have simply paused long enough in the rectory to dump one lot of my luggage in the study before grabbing the next briefcase or set of papers and setting off again for the next appointment. 
     Today there was an important midday pause to attend a funeral  -- which, itself, is a kind of pause between the life we have known on earth and other, deeper dimensions of life enveloped in the eternity of divine love.

Harvest Thanksgiving

Sunday 12th October 2014

St Aidan's Thorneyburn hosted the second Harvest Thanksgiving of the day which was followed by the "soup swap" at which we all sampled soup from each other's flasks!

Saturday at the desk

Saturday 11th October 2014

A lot of Deanery admin and a lot of Sunday service preparation

More work behind the scenes

Thursday 9th October 2014

I spent a long time at the computer (1) finalising the order of service for the next Great War Commemoration and also (2)preparing for a school powerpoint presentation for which I depend on a computer expert assembling all the material that I e-mailed to him!

Work behind the scenes

Tuesday 7th October

Apples in Tarset community orchard
where I went to inspect the walnut tree which I sponsored (not yet old enough to fruit) on my way between Greenhaugh First School  (where I took an assembly) and Otterburn where I explained to the Churchwarden elect more about the role which she is taking up since a mid-term resignation.

Sunday church

Sunday 5th October 2014

St Cuthbert's Bellingham from the bridge over the North Tyne:
a new view since the felling of the overgrown leylandii cypresses.



Going clubbing?

Friday 3rd October 2014

At St Aidan's after-school Club
we took the theme of seeds and harvest, telling Jesus's parable of the Sower and making pictures with a wide variety of seeds. 
                                                              One boy told us that this was the first time his little sister had joined in St Aidan's Club.  "In fact, this is the first time she's ever been to a club."