Maundy Thursday

A damp morning for a walk so Eliot is now a smelly wet dog...the joy of dog ownership, I guess!
Mind is full of all the activities of today with the last of the home communions and then the big United Churches Celebration this evening. It is at 8 o'clock if you're in the area. Bishop Ken Clarke will be preacher and celebrant - looking forward to that. The services have been good all week and the church warm and feeling well filled.
Interesting thing is that the Anglicans have not suppported these services nearly as well as the Presbyterians and Methodists. Why is this? Has the Church of Ireland tradition of keeping Holy Week gone in this part of the world? The choir have been very faithful and the singing is beautiful...but where are the people who come out on Sunday mornings? I'm puzzled and disappointed. Those who have come have been blessed and encouraged - it is a great pity that so many others have missed the blessing. I wonder will people come this evening....hope so!
Meanwhile...having spent a while photocopying in the office at 7.00 am I'm now ready for breakfast and the first of the last of the home communions. Thinking too of all the "poorly" people, those in hospital and hospice, and others who need to travel for treatment and check ups.
It has been a good week here in Saint Nicholas' and I have be encouraged in my own soul. One of "The Boys" last night suggested that we do this kind of thing every week!! "The Boys" is the collective noun, coined by one of the choir, for my colleagues - Paul, Ivan and Fred - from the two Presbyterian Churches and Belfast South Methodist.