Categories: places, university, church
Tags: age, Loch Lomond, confirmation, Tchai Ovna, Christianity, church, university
Date: 18 September 2006 17:58:40
I've had a wonderful weekend, it has been kind of hard getting back into normal routine today! HD was here for the weekend, I had grand plans for a walk along the Ayrshire coast, but due to me being gormless (not listening to perfectly good navigating till it was too late) and Scottish motorway exits being not very helpful (so I couldn't turn round to get back where I wanted to go), we ended up at Loch Lomond instead, and walked a few miles along the West Loch Lomond Cycle Path around Inverbeg, which was just lovely. Too bad I hadn't brought any empty lunchboxes, as there were hundreds of blackberries ripe for the picking. I'll have to remember that for next year, along with a rocky spot by the lake where we sat for ages, it was just beautiful.
Yesterday was my confirmation, which suddenly seemed to rush up on me after years of procrastinating and thinking about it. I thought it was a lovely service - I was "done" by one of the Assistant Bishops, who is a retired CofE bishop (the actual Bishop was at another service somewhere else, and the other Assistant Bishop was at a party), and I really appreciated that link between where I've come from and where I am now, as I started my Anglican journey in the CofE. The Bishop had asked my rector to preach, he was a bit nervous about that as he said he'd been a priest for just about 22 years and never preached at a confirmation before, but I have to say it was a stonking sermon, one of the best I've heard him preach. The passage he preached on was Jeremiah 1:4-9, and he linked it to our confirmation liturgy (which isn't up on the website at the moment: they changed it, and another of other liturgies, at Synod this summer so are still in the process of putting them online - I'll link to it some time when it eventually appears) which requires the candidate to confess the faith in the words of the creed, then the church affirms it is their faith too, then the same with the candidate committing to the task of Christian living and the church affirming it is their task too. It is a lot more involved, I think, than the CofE confirmation service I went to the other year where it felt like the Bishop was doing a bit of a production line and the candidates pretty much only had to say "I will". The phrase in the sermon I particularly liked was about how God's calling of all people into life is known through the lives and living of particular people - although that did also make me think "Eep! That's a lot to live up to!" Anyway, it was all very lovely (although I discovered afterwards that the label at the back of my top had been out and showing throughout the whole thing - oh well it probably wouldn't have been me if I hadn't been a teeny bit scruffy!), and as it was also St Frodo's patronal festival there was sherry after the service which I'm never going to complain about (that's one great thing about going to an Anglo-Catholic place, they're not at all embarrassed about enjoying their alcohol!). The little old ladies were very well-behaved with HD and didn't embarrass us (though I suspect I shall get the Spanish Inquisition next week), although I was a bit amused by the Bishop asking us if we "belonged together" after the service. It was rather nice, actually :)
We went to this place for lunch, I'd been there before for tea but not eaten there before - what a great find! For less than a tenner each we had a pot of tea each and lunch, and were so full we didn't need to eat for the rest of the day. And it was delicious. I'll definitely be taking people there again.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing back at the Stately Pile. I don't think HD is entirely convinced yet that I'm not bonkers; I think I prefer different and fascinating and unique myself :) (actually I received a confirmation card this morning from a former London friend who referred to my "unique friendship" which I must admit did make me laugh, and as she's also thoroughly "unique" I have taken it in the spirit I'm sure it was meant!). Anyway, he's cool and lovely and gorgeous and I'm looking forward a lot to spending some more time with him in a couple of weeks. Hooray!
An early start to take HD to the airport this morning has meant that now, outrageously early in the evening, I'm a bit pooped, although I've got a weekend's worth of washing up to face before I crash out for the day. I went into uni where - horrors! - I realised that I'd forgotten that Freshers Week starts today. I'm not sure whether to be delighted or mortified that I didn't get collared by a single Freshers Week "chugger" wanting to get me to join one of the two Student Unions or go to some club or other. Clearly I look far too old and past it to be a Fresher. My goodness there were millions of them! Am trying not to think about the main implication for me, which is that teaching starts again for me in a couple of weeks. Sigh. Back to life, back to reality.