Only five services left to go. A couple of crib services – although Baby Jesus and the Wise Men don’t actually get to stay in the stable until Christmas Day or Epiphany; a couple of holy communions and lessons and carols with a brass band. I’ve nearly finished preparing the sermon for midnight communion on Christmas Eve, so I should have plenty of time to wrap the presents. It was very, very cold in church this morning in spite of the overhead heaters – I really look forward to sharing the peace in order to warm my hands up. One of downsides of rural and medieval churches... I could barely sign the service register this morning, my fingers were too cold to move properly. My 3-term attachment in training was to a church with little heating but this is worse. Plus there I was in cassock and surplice, and here I have one layer less because we wear a cassock alb. At least there is room to wear a thin fleece layer underneath, which helps. And, although my head gets some heat from a heater, my feet are on a stone floor… Singing hymns means that temporarily it is as foggy inside – with the breath condensing in the cold air – as it is outside. And this is in probably the warmest of our churches. The welcome is still very warm though and I left after the service with a couple of bottles to cheer up a meal or two.
And now, at long last, all the radiators in the vicarage work. Hurray!!
[The image shows part of the knitted Nativity set given me as an ordination present...]
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