It's probably a good sign that I'm not blogging much! Last week I was in Walsingham for a Priest's Pilgrimage Retreat. I gather there's a Wi-Fi connection in the Norton Cafe Bar - but nowhere else, and my laptop remained zipped up in my bag throughout my stay. What a wonderful experience that was - and the Retreat!
A letter from the Shrine Administrator, Bishop Lindsay Urwin, before the Retreat began said that 65 priests had signed up - but in the event there were rather more. All men, I'm afraid + one woman Permanent Deacon. But happily it was a non-contentious experience. The only reference to events that week in Synod was when we happened to see the TV news one night. And no one seemed bothered to discuss these issues which can be so wearing.
The Retreat itself was invigorating. I stayed awake during the addresses - an achievement for me and a tribute to Bishop Lindsay and Brother Paschal SSF. I found myself reflecting on them and on the larger experience when I preached on Sunday on St. Luke's approach to the Transfiguration. While Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus takes the disciples up the Mount of the Transfiguration as a "place apart," it's only Luke who is explicit that the intention is to pray. And only Luke tells how hard it was for the disciples to stay awake. "They were heavy with sleep but managed to stay awake," Bishop Tom Wright translates it. You can read what I had to say by clicking here. To make the text appear you've got to move the scroll button - I don't know why, but it makes it work!
And you can find what our Reader, Rosie Junemann said the previous week as she looked at the meaning of faith when things go wrong - with special reference to the Haiti earthquake.
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