Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 September 2006 20:46:14
At the Eucharist, there should have been a visiting preacher, but he didn't turn up. The curate carried on gamely, rising to the occasion with an off-the-cuff sermon based on the day's readings. We sang 'Day by Day' by How in the morning and 'O thou the central Orb' by Wood in the Evening, and thought no more of it - assuming there was an obvious explanation.
However, the next day - at the sister church's Harvest Service - another strange thing happened. Again, the visiting preacher didn't turn up (a different one than the previous incident). The curate took the service of Evensong v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y hoping that he was just late, and we sang, 'Day by Day' again (this time it should have been 'Groundhog Day'). Half-past-seven came and went, and still no sign of the preacher, so the poor curate was again left to preach an ad hoc sermon, again based on the readings. She did extremely well, obviously becoming an old hand at it all now. But we were all left wondering how it could possibly happen two times in a row, with two different people.
Suggested explanations were:
1) preacher 1 has eloped with preacher 2.
2) it was all a test to see if the curate was ready for a parish of her own: 'can preach a sermon on two minutes' notice' (tick)
3) the appointments secretary (do we have one?) bears a huge grudge against the curate and deliberately scuppered the arrangements
4) the two preachers are closet 'forward in faithers' and saw their chance to wage gender war
5) both preachers got their dates mixed up and will turn up next week looking very bewildered
The real explanation is probably incredibly boring....
Anyway, who cares - the harvest supper was splendiferous (and hugely calorie-laden) and the ensuing auction left everyone straining under the weight of apples, marrows and other home-grown fare. Whatever happened, the two guest preachers missed out on their share.