\n<\/em><\/span><\/div>\nWell, thank you very much indeed Nigel, how very kind of you to remember my favorite tipple is a half of lager shandy. I don\u2019t mind if I do. Very kind. Very kind. Thank you so much. You know I rather missed you chaps too don\u2019t you know? I am sorry that you didn\u2019t get on so very well with Lavinia. She\u2019s not all bad you know; a bit passionate about her various causes of course, but not a bad egg.<\/p>\n
Yes, it was rather splendid to be back in the parish for Easter Day, and wasn\u2019t the Sunday School good to lay on such a delightful welcome back party for myself and Daphne? Splendid, just splendid, and an Easter egg hunt in the churchyard to top it all! I\u2019m rather partial to the odd Cadbury\u2019s cream egg myself you know, and it\u2019s not unknown for quite a few of them to go down the hatch in the vicarage once Lent\u2019s over.<\/p>\n
Yes, it was difficult being away for those weeks, but I\u2019m sure Lavinia held the fort in my absence. I understand she experimented with a few things, but don\u2019t you worry\u2013 Mr Thornton has agreed to return as Vicar\u2019s Warden and we\u2019ll be putting the lady chapel back as it was. I think Lavinia\u2019s display on wimmin\u2019s issues in the third world has just about reached the end of it\u2019s usefulness don\u2019t you? I understand one of the cacti in the Lenten desert scene injured Mrs. Higginbottom in a sensitive place when she bent over to clean the floor, so happily the whole thing has been put out for the dustman.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s that Ian? News of Mrs Vicar? I\u2019m pleased to say that Daphne\u2019s cousin in Lancashire has made a full recovery, and one of the reasons we arrived last minute is that I was honored to attend a delightful service in the Roman Catholic Church there in Lancashire on Saturday night. They call it the Easter Vigil and I believe Fr. Giles \u00a0over at St Barnabas often observes similar rituals.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t been to a service like this before, and I must say I found it all rather moving. They light a fire outside the church, then process into the darkened church with a jolly huge candle while one of the fellows sing out, \u201cThe Light of Christ!\u201d Jolly impressive I\u2019d say! The whole thing goes on much longer than our usual Evensong, and they have a couple of baptisms and bring folks into their church who want to join. Not dis similar I think from the way they did it in the early church if my memory of Canon Farnsworth\u2019s church history lectures serves me well.<\/p>\n
You probably heard by now that Daphne was one of the ones being \u2018received into full communion\u2019 as they like to call it these days. Of course, I was upset with her decision to start with, but once I thought it through I realized that we\u2019re all Catholics anyway, and if it\u2019s important to her to be a Roman Catholic why should I worry?<\/p>\n
Of course I have to admit I took it all rather personally at first, but dear old Daff explained it quite simply and said it wasn\u2019t a matter of her not liking my sermons. She has always been fond of my sermons and she said there was an awful lot about the C of E she\u2019d miss, but my sermons were top of the list. She also said that although she\u2019d have to go to Mass down at Immaculate Conception with Fr. McGready she\u2019d always make it a point to attend Evensong at All Saints with all of us, and she can still run the Mother\u2019s Union and organize the flower arranging rota, and of course she\u2019ll remain captain of the bell ringers.<\/p>\n
So all\u2019s not quite so dramatic as some of the folks have been putting about the parish. End of the story is that I rather respect Daphne for sticking up for herself. She\u2019s always had quite a bit of \u2018oomph\u2019 if you know what I mean, and if she wants to worship the Lord in her way I don\u2019t want to stand in her way. I still don\u2019t see why she has to kiss the Pope\u2019s toe and worship Mary and all that pagan palaver, but if it pleases her, I can\u2019t see there\u2019s any harm in it.<\/p>\n
Who knows, she might just convince a few more of us to light some extra candles now and again.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Guest blogger, The Rev\u2019d Humphrey Blytherington is Vicar of St Hilda\u2019s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and is an avid member of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[4,21,94],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-vicar","tag-alter-egos","tag-anglicans","tag-humor"],"yoast_head":"\n
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