Easy (non-timed) run, 1° weather, coffee, hot breakfast (minus eggs), shower and Morning Prayer, meeting with a wedding couple, follow-up paperwork, long Staff Meeting, homework assignment for safeguarding certification, follow-up paperwork, tutorial essays to read…
Did I say that yesterday morning, between Morning Prayer (or more precisely, ‘beginning in the middle of Morning Prayer’) and the bus to Oxford, I spent some time in prayer and conversation with the legitimate heir to the throne of the United Kingdom? The basis of his claim was not perfectly clear; the sentences went by very rapidly. It seems, however, that his ancient family settled Abingdon in times past, one of the eight original families. Their claim to the throne was gazumped by Henry the Eighth and the Windsors in the nineteenth century, along with the spoliation of the monasteries. He was particularly anxious that I find and put him in contact with the first Black Canon in the Church of England, who is the descendant of one of the other original eight families. Alas, and somewhat oddly, although it’s not hard to find the first Black Bishop (the Rt Revd Wilfred Wood) and the first Black woman ordained to the priesthood (the Revd Eve Pitts), finding other Black ecclesiastical pioneers poses intricate web search challenges. If someone in Lambeth is reading this, may I suggest making a web page that covers Black and South Asian leaders in the Church?