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Invitations

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This morning was the first of my weekend services of Holy Communion, and it went very well. There was a good attendance, as usual, with many familiar faces among them. Karim played the piano beautifully, and entertained us with some Beatles tunes afterwards! After the service, it was coffee outside with the congregation, and we had a good chat about my sermon and the idea of hope and love as bastions of Christianity. It's nice to know that people are taking in the Sermon and that its giving them pause for thought.  We discussed the problem of evil and in particular, its ramifications from a political point of view.  This of course is something that preoccupies many people here who have had to leave their homes because of conflict and persecution, particularly the Sudanese community, of whom there are quite a few. I also had a lovely compliment from a lady who is a member of the Myanmar congregation here, and I was invited to their service which takes place this Sunday afternoo...
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Service

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This evening, after a day of preparation, I attended an Ordination service in the Cathedral. There were a total of six deacons ordained, among them Tim, who is the Archbishop's Secretary. I had been talking to one of the other Ordinands, Mark, who had stayed in the guesthouse last week and who was also at breakfast this morning. he asked for any advice I could give him.  Apart from keeping his day off strictly as a day off, I told him about the importance of maintaining a healthy daily prayer time, despite the many demands and crises of daily ministry! It has stood me well! I arrived about ten minutes before the service was due to begin, and settled myself in a pew with a good view.  As the service started, and as the procession made their way to the Sanctuary to be seated, I could see Canon M motioning to the Dean, frantically pointing tohis throat ( obviously his clerical collar) and looking in my direction . And after a minute or two, my suspicions were proved correct and t...
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Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams...

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Apologies to W.B Yeats, but this morning as I worked in ' the office ', one of my colleagues came in to make himself a cup of coffee. He is a lovely guy and always has a bright, welcoming smile. I could tell that there was something on his mind, however, and soon enough he asked me what I thought of women's ordinations.  Did we have them in Ireland? Now, this is where cultural sensitivity comes in!  Being a guest here, and respecting local tradition and values, I explained that we had been blessed to have the ordination of women in Ireland for some time.  There then followed an interesting discussion in which I mostly and politely listened, and which occurred in somewhat halting English, and concerned the 'scriptural' basis for the non-ordination of women, leaning heavily on St. Paul and tradition. Now I know that poor old Paul is frequently used to justify this approach, ( I imagine much to his chagrin as he looks down ), but this reliance on one or two verses from...
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'Gonna need a bigger boat!'

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Today was a busy one from an admin perspective.  I managed to complete my sermon for this weekend, and selected the hymns and sent them to the musical directors(s). We have a separate one for Friday and Sunday, as it happens! But they loved them and so, all is set. I also had to put in place a new system to get service sheets printed, as we can't have the wardens out of funds! I think that's set too. I met Tim, the Archbishop's P.A. for coffee ( and cake ) in Diwan, and we had a great chat about theology and ministry. He is from a Baptist background originally, but found his home in the Anglican church. He is to be ordained as Deacon this Thursday evening and I'm robing for it, so quite honoured! The service will be in Arabic, but I'm sure the liturgy will be familiar! While I was there, I spied a kids book, and I thought I was seeing things. But no! Its a real kids book version of...Jaws!! How can one make a kids book of that?!  I have to buy it! It even has Quint!...
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Ice Cold in Alex

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Well today being my official day off, I took a trip to visit St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, on the recommendation ( rather insistence ) of Bishop Mouneer. And it didn't disappoint! Being on the coast, Alex benefits from a slight sea breeze. Slight, mind you, as it still got up to 36c by the time we had left. But I opted to join a shared tour, as I figured it would be easier to get to the centre, where the cathedral is, and I would also get to see other things which I may not ordinarily do travelling solo. We were delayed for over an hour on the Alex desert road, as the Police had closed it due to bad visibility. Dust or haze, I guess. So we were running behind all day! Our first stop was the Garden. It's basically a private beach area in one of the large hotels, and was full of noisy Americans from an anchored cruise ship. Oh joy. The neighbouring King's/Presidential palace was impressive though, with a kind of Andalucian flavour. We then made our way to visit the ...
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Penultimate

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A few weeks ago, as the time was drawing nearer to mid-May and the start line with CMSI in Cairo, it all seemed so very far away. Today, as I celebrate Holy Communion once again in this lovely Cathedral, its hard to believe that I'm nearing the end of week three and that week four of five begins tomorrow! Five weeks seems a long time, and I guess in some ways it is. But it really has flown and as I prepared for this morning's mass, it wasn't without a slight pang. Its lovely to be in control of one's own destiny and steering the ship, as it were. I know the administrative functions aren't perhaps as onerous as parish life, but it does get one thinking. There was quite a big congregation for this morning's 1030am Holy Communion, some of whom I hadn't seen before. I met one lovely man at the door and as he put out his hand, he said ' Are you Father Mike ?' I replied in the affirmative, and he said ' good. I heard all about you .' And I was prom...
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Downhill slope...

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Saturday again, and a very quiet day around the Cathedral. It's literally the middle of the weekend here and there is almost nobody around. But its Saturday of week 3, with really two more weeks to go! Wow. So, for me, it was a day of preparation for tomorrow's Holy Communion and a chance to look over the readings for next week's sermon. Everybody has their own way of doing this, and I like to sit with the readings for a couple of days and to see what percolates.  So I took my diary over to Diwan again, that lovely coffee/bookshop. It's become my ' Costa ' office abroad, and the friendly Barista guy, who calls me mister, almost knows my order off by heart!  They make a mean lemon drizzle cake which, dare I say it, would stand up to Mother's Union scrutiny any day of the week! I tend to chat to everyone over here, and have had some lovely comments in broken English, and even translated from Arabic, over the last few days, asking me to stay!  I'm sure my ...
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