A Typical Day in a Typical Week.

Part of this week has been spent in Mirfield, where the sun has shone, which is handy because it's the only source of heat. The beavering away in the library means that there is no long reflection on 'the state of the church' from me today, just a return to the daily plod of posting about my life, for a longer or shorter time, depending much on mood and reception. I have noticed an interesting trend wherein the more mundane posts generate more comments, whereas the more philosophical posts generate more readers. I am fairly disinterested in how many people actually read this blog, having long ago surpassed my wildest expectations from the days when there were four of you, but the trends are interesting.

I have also been much in Manchester, at Luther King House. To get there I have to pass this largest of all developments of housing to be erected for many years in the City. I live in the North of Manchester and Luther King is in the leafy South. This huge development is in the centre, just about, or at least is on the periphery of the rapidly expanding centre. It is vast, this is but a tiny part, it is next to the main road (see how close some of those flats are) and it is called, naturally enough, the Green Quarter!

We have a couple of icons at Saint Hilda's, as you can see above, but we would like to commission two more, for the new Holy Souls altar, of Our Lady of Mercy and Saint Thomas of Canterbury, which will flank the altar cross, commemorating the dedication of the Church from which the altar came. An announcement will be made this Sunday, appropriately enough on the feast of the dedication of our Church, asking for funds. My contact, Magdalena, in Romania, is posed, eagerly, brush in hand waiting for the go-ahead.

This is a picture, upside down for I have not the time to adjust it this morning, counting the minutes as I am, of myself and the Parish Priest. It is drawn by one of thirty three children who wrote to thank us for the long and exhausative time we spent with them showing them around the Church last week. Thank you to Hollins Grundy School for your attention and excellent behaviour. We are glad you enjoyed yourselves so much. Of course, now I have thirty three letters saying that I am nice, I wonder if I am not too much so? Furthermore, clearly being thinner than the Parish Priest, as you can see in this picture, I worry I may fade away. I am particularly happy that this artist captured my sandals.