Category: Uncategorized

Another morning, another two miles, another fruit breakfast with coffee, another shower, another Mass and sermon, then another Confirmation Class, and just finished writing another column for the parish newspaper. The sermon went down well; Confirmation Class was fine; and now it’s time for reading and perhaps a nap.

I was up late last night for the Finalists’ Dinner at Oriel, so I was not inclined to run this morning. On the other hand, I made my way downstairs in good time, and was drawn out by the gorgeous morning light, and (knowing that dark skies and rain were due for the afternoon) mostly walked, ran for very short spells, and ticked my two-mile box. Coffee, hot breakfast, and I’ll need to write a couple of pieces for church.

Last night marked, as usual, a splendid occasion for visiting with students with whom I greatly enjoyed working. We shared Finalists’ Dinner with Philosophy (Phil/The, to be exact) and, I think, Classics, and one of the philosophers observed to me that Oriel seemed to them to build community within the college distinctly more deeply and thoroughly than other colleges. That goes double for Oriel theologians; my philosophical interlocutor didn’t know how hard Bill Wood and Brendan Harris have worked to cultivate, nourish, and preserve the close-knit fabric woven of our students and staff. Floreat Oriel!

Two miles, fruit breakfast, clean up, Morning Prayer, then to Oxford for my last tutorial of the academic year. After lunch, I’ll drift home and prepare for the PCC meeting tonight. Margaret is still home, thank heaven.

My colleague clergy and I were talking at staff meeting about how fast time passes; for instance, I’ve lived in Abingdon for seven months now, after three months in Headington, after ten months in our second home in Oxford. We’re beginning to feel cautiously secure after months of housing instability.

Contrariwise for our lives together: Margaret and I married forty-two (auspicious sum!) years ago today, and that duration seems both long (each has lived [roughly] twice as long married as we did single) and fast as the burst of a strobe light. Our hearts and years expanded to include children (once children, now all very adult) and grandchildren, and hundreds and hundreds of students, and friends from Maine and Pittsburgh and New Haven and Durham NC and Florida and Princeton and Evanston and Maryland and Glasgow and Oxford. We have family in the US who we don’t see enough, some we will never see again; we’ve shared our lives with Pearl the Wonder Dog, and Beatrice, and now Minke and Señora Flora Dora ‘Ora Labora’ Dinosaura, and it’s amazing cos we only got married, what, a few days ago?

I married a sweet, lovely couple at St Helen’s last Saturday; I asked them ‘N., will you take M. to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?’ ‘M., will you take N. to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?’

Margaret, will you take me for your husband, for another forty-two years… and beyond?

Ran my two miles (at my new pace, my legs complain a bit more, but I do get home sooner, so that’s jolly), coffee, cleaned up and had a hot breakfast, and prayed the Morning Office at home because I’m expecting the plumber.

Sometime after the plumber arrives — and I hope, after he’s gone, because he’s installing a new shower pump so that the shower will flow with more (that is, ‘some’) force, an enhancement I arranged as a surprise for Margaret — my beloved will return from Heathrow, and we’ll have an anniversary kiss (forty-two years today); then I’ll dash off to the staff meeting, and in the evening help lead the marriage preparation course at St Helen’s.

I ran my miles, had my coffee and fruit, and will shortly clean up and go to Morning Prayer. I am hoping to take up no other immediate job-related work today, to soak up some measure of rest. We will see…

Alomost didn’t run, since it was raining cats and dogs at about 4:30 — but it was calm by 6:00, so I ran my two miles, coffee, cleaned up, Morning Prayer and a quick trip to the Cooperative, then a care home Communion at Cygnet Court, lunch, then home Communion for a retired priest.

Two miles, coffee and fruit breakfast, cleaned up, preached and celebrated at St Michael’s, taught the confirmation class at St Helen’s and did the washing-up after, strolled home and ate lunch, fed the dogs, walked the dogs, fell asleep during the Mets-Phillies game at London (watching on the BBC; I didn’t go to London and then fall asleep), realised that I didn’t especially care to cook so I opened a tin of soup, watched Johnny Mnemonic (which I realised that I hadn’t seen before, contrary to my recollection) and so to bed.

Had a wee lie-in this morning so that my run would coincide with the opening of the Cooperative at 7:00; I needed eggs for my Saturday hot breakfast, so after sprinting in to town on my daily route, I paused to purchase eggs, then walked the rest of the way, since I thought it unwise to try to run with eggs.

Cleaned up, headed to church, moved the furnishings about in preparation for the wedding. I dashed out to Lewis Baker to pick up rubberised loose-weave fabric and two notebooks. Put on my cassock and surplice, married the sweet couple who were marrying, and eventually stumbled home to rest and work out another sermon, this one for tomorrow at St Michael’s…

I nearly forgot Si and Laura’s fifteenth wedding anniversary, but at the last minute (before I fell asleep) (British Summer Time, plenty of time left US Central Daylight Time) I pulled myself together and wished Si (and through him, Laura) a very happy anniversary. Well done, and see you in a few weeks!

Then this morning I ran my miles (I’ve picked up my pace, because I am that way, so my muscles are peeved at me), had my fruit breakfast and coffee, worked on my wedding sermon for Jess and Sam, cleaned up, went to Morning Prayer, and am on my way to the Pastoral Care Committee meeting. This afternoon, more work on the homily, and the rehearsal for tomorrow’s wedding.

Had a wee lie-in this morning, but woke in time to run my two miles. Fruit and coffee breakfast, cleaned up, Morning Prayer, the X3 bus to Oxford, coffee, next-to-last tutorial of the year, lunch at Oriel, home to the ladies, whom I fed.

On my walk to Oriel, I had a moment of frustrated confusion; I couldn’t find the SPT ticket wallet that I use for keeping my Bod Card and my Oxon Old Age bus pass, patting my pockets furiously, emptying one pocket into another, checking again… and as I was so doing, a flock of Korean tourists streamed down Oriel Street.

Something about me — perhaps my look? perhaaps just the oddity oif seeing a beardy clergyman in sunglasses? — excited them, and suddenly a dozen or so tourists were surrounding me, asking for photos. If you spot a sketchy-looking priest in a straw hat and sunglasses (with Korean tourists) when you’re browsing the internet sometime in the future… that may be me?

Two miles in the morning, hot breakfast, cleaned up, Morning Prayer, handwrote a couple of notes, marked tomorrow’s essay, walked the dogs, went to my GP for my ‘NHS Health Check’ which in the younger country we call a plain old check-up, looked in at the Abingdon County Hall Museum pretty good, though the display signage makes some poor design choices), and home to the ladies.Initial reports from the check-up are very positive (that I’m alive).

Sometime in the midst of all that, a random neuron fired and I had to look up this advert:

Now, imagine Pippa, about eight years old and madly gifted at amusing her brothers and parents, delivering that final punchline.