This morning I returned to my Anglican roots covering for my friend Barry who is the Vicar of Crickhowell and Cwm Du as well as Tre Tower.
The fact that I don't cover for him very often indicates that he, as an active Church in Wales parish priest, doesn't have an abundance of holidays. Don't believe that old tale that vicars only work one day a week: they only get paid for one.
It's fun going into other people's parishes, creating havoc, and then return back home. The other advantage is that a peripatetic preacher like me can polish up an old sermon and use it repeatidly. I couldn't do that today because I was under strict instructions to preach on Joseph at the 10.45 Family Eucharist.
The saints in my friend's parish are very kind about my sermons and it is really appreciated. Since being ordained in 1979, for the first time ever this morning, something quite extraordinary happened. Just as I thought that I had lost the listeners and had decided to bring my thoughts to an end, some in the congregation applauded the sermon. I was reliably informed that they weren't clapping because I had brought the sermon to an end.
It was one of those rare occasions when I was totally gobsmacked!
wild about...
6 years ago
2 comments:
Lovely post Aled.
Maybe the applause was in response to the creation of a new work rather than "polishing up" an old one? Your originality was certainly recognised and rewarded! It must have been quite something to leave you gobsmacked... ;)
Thanks Daran - good to hear from you. Some of my friends would have me be gobsmacked more often - but they are a few - I hope!!!
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