We were back at St Gabriel's this morning. Fr Cal was away, and a priest had come in from Reading to take the service. She was a very friendly, warm and glad sort of person, a pleasure to meet. Her sermon was more like an essay about prayer read aloud. It would have made a good small group meeting, but it didn't really work as a sermon. She had a beautiful stole with pictures of children of all different races on it. She told me that she'd seen it at General Convention, and pondered back and forth about buying it because she was close to retirement, but it seemed so perfect for her and her ministry of children's work that she ended up getting it.
Probably because it's Memorial Day tomorrow, there were a few patriotic songs mixed in with the hymns. The postcommunion hymn was America, America, God shed his grace on thee. I thought this was a bit weird, but someone pointed out to me that English churches do occasionally sing Jerusalem.
After the service people could stay behind and be prayed for. Only two people stayed, one of whom was me. One of the clergy people asked you what was up and you talked about it for a bit, and then they prayed for you, and gave you a hug. They were very supportive. I'm glad I've found a church family where I feel I belong.
I mentioned the work I do to James, and he said it was wonderful to have good works and the work you do for a living being the same work. I think he has a point. Some people try to tell me I should be doing something else (my psychiatrist asks me why I'm living in this town and doing this work when I could be away somewhere doing postgrad work or something) but for now, this is my calling, and I'm sticking to it.
Later we went to lunch. We mostly discussed swordfighting, for some reason, but the lesson I learned from that meal was not to eat so much at lunchtime that I'm no longer hungry, or else I'll feel sleepy all afternoon. I don't need any more ways to feel stupider.
My fix to Metacity compiles. It awaits testing.
I went to the park with Rio later, and she played with another little girl. I should have brought my computer and tested Metacity, really, but I thought she and I were going to play more.
