Summer Time!!

A little blue sky at the London Eye!!
















The Place where they seem to make a mess of our country.

Martin with an old Alexandre Harmonium in fairly good condition.
If any one wants it they can take it away free.
















Hello everyone, bit late as ever. It has been one of those months which has been all go and no stop. I have had no time to read or catch up with friends that I have not seen for over a year. I thought the summer months would give me a little space, but no such luck. Next week here in England it is the start of the school holidays so things might slacken off a little. I wouldn't mind if I was busy doing priestly work for that is my vocation but all I seem to be doing is running after tradesmen getting quotes for plumbers, electricians, tilers, plasterers, decorators, kitchen fitter and so on. Finally after six weeks I have got all the quotes in and selected what I feel is the best. Now I have to co-ordinate them all to work together. This however has been put on hold because of the summer holidays. So it looks like I will not be moving in here until October at the earliest. But Christmas time looks a better day.

This week in England we have been confronted with the stark reality of how lucky many people were, that the would be suicide bombers failed in their attempt to kill and maim. Yet the lasting impression for me was a brave fireman who stood in front of the woman and her baby to protect her from the blast that passengers in the carriage thought was imminent. His heroic action of standing in front of the mother and child was the complete opposite of the bomber who actually turned round to face the mother and child to detonate the bomb. (It is beyond normal human beings to comprehend such hate that would blow up innocent children.) Two men thrown together in history, in time and space. One a religious fanatic, the other an ordinary man. One intent on killing and maiming in the name of God, the other just going about his ordinary life and ends up being a Good Samaritan. A man who puts his own life on the line to save others rather than put his life on the line to kill others as the fanatic did. We know which one would have been the real martyr and would have been truly welcomed into the Kingdom.

Its not all bad here the other day we actually had two hours of sunshine with no rain. It didn't last long. As I look out of the window now it is drizzling, so much for global warming here in England. On one or two days I have had to put on the central heating and even the birds have stopped singing. Yet saying all that I am glad to be home and working in the vineyard of the Lord. The parish is moving along quite well and I have notice the people have more involvement in the running of their Church. This gives me hope for the future as it will mean that even if they do not have a regular parish priest like myself they will be able to survive as a parish. Therefore I can honestly say that my sabbatical has not only refreshed me it has taught the parish to stand on its own two feet.

Looking forward to Fr Thi from Perth coming to stay with me for a few days with two other priests. Heres me going on to the parishioners about the shortage of priests and there will be four of us staying in the parish in a couple of weeks. Fr Thi was the priest in Perth who was very kind to me so his stay here will give me a chance to repay his kindness. I do hope the weather changes for the better. There is nothing better in the world than to see the English countryside in glorious sunshine after a long spat of rain.

Thats all from me at the moment will write again in a few weeks.