With Dorothy and her niece Marva
With Michael Maxwell, the Rector of Holy Trinity
On Sunday December 13th (Advent 3) Dorothy and I were up at 6am in order to get to church by 6.45. She was anxious for me to meet her Rector - Michael Maxwell - before the 7am service. There were plenty of people around when we arrived and I was soon introduced and safely esconsed in the vestry. Michael is in his late 30s - very relaxed - and made me feel completely at home.
I stayed around for the 7am service and the 9am service - both Eucharists - both with very healthy congregations of 100 plus each. The 7am was a said Eucharist with hymns - the 9am a full blown Sung Eucharist. The style of service would be considered High Church in England but here it is the default position and in conducted without any fuss. The hymns were nearly all from A & M Standard which is used in hardly any churches at home - in other words very trad. It was all very welcome and very surprising! I felt completely at home - it was like being back in Llandaff Diocese. In both services I read the Gospel and gave a greeting at the end of the service. Everyone made me extremely welcome.
After the service, an opportunity arose to join a group from the church who are going to St. Vincent on Tuesday of this week to attend the ordination of one of their members. Having discussed it with Dorothy I decided that I would join them and so I will be spending three days this week in St. Vincent - an unexpected island for me to visit!
On Monday morning I went back to Holy Trinity to meet Michael at 10am. He immediately took me to visit Codrington College - the Theological College for the West Indies - and the oldest theological college in the Western Hemisphere (as they never tire of pointing out!). It is in the most stunning location imaginable - high in the Barbados Hills - overlooking the Atlantic. We visited the chapel and met the Principal - the Revd. Ian Rock - who promptly invited me to preach this coming Friday morning at 7am: they like early morning religion in the Caribbean!
From there we went back to the parish to lead a Communion Service in the local hospital of St. Philips for elderly geriatric patients. We then went down into Bridgetown where we called at the Diocesan Office and I made an appointment to meet the Bishop next week. There is a lot of excitement in the Diocese at the moment as the Bishop - John Holder - has just been elected at Archbishop of the Province of the West Indies. I also wangled an invitation to his Christmas party for clergy this coming Friday evening.
In the afternoon we had a funeral to attend at Holy Trinity - Michael was leading and I did some prayers. It was fairly similar to West Indian funerals that I have led in Manchester but with better singing and much more traditionally Anglican!
Wow! Sounds as though you are having a gr8 time, how exciting going to St Vincent - how far from Barbados? - must get the atlas out, again.
ReplyDeleteExtremely cold in Watford as I write, they are even talking of some snow, before Rossendale, now that would be a turn-up for the books!