The organist librarian

Art at St Stephen Norbury and good progress on the Bali painting. So glad I went to see Mrs Lowry and son. Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall are perfect and it so reflects Northern attitudes. I was reminded of Auntie Nellie. I too want to paint with love and feeling! To Tate Modern Takis can't be taken seriously. Olafur Eliasson very interesting especially Beauty but I hated the fog! Cream tea in the members room. Excellent talk on Mary in the New testament at Southwark cathedral by Dr Jeffrey John. I have the notes if anyone would like a copy. I also went to Bankside gallery and looked at the Society of watercolour displey - the prices are too high! 

Up at 6.30 a.m. 2 buses to Caterham as train replaced by bus at that time but now running. Played Gordon Slater on "St Botolph" as we sang my favourite Marian hymn "For Mary mother of our Lord". Beautiful tune. I am afraid " Shall we not love thee mother dear" feels very Victorian. We sang "People look East" which seems very appropriate as people were very busy after service preparing for Christingle and Midnight. I think I have 4 sopranos tonight so descants are on. Lloyd Webber on Helmsley a great piece and also played Noel pour L'Amour de Marie. Compliments about carol service but more importantly ecumenical first.  Washing put away, presents wrapped, dishwasher loaded. Delicious ham lunch with squeak and Aldi Chrstmas pudding. Can now settle down to listen to King's - let Christmas begin!  Served at 6 p.m. mass at the cathedral which was packed. Blessing of the crib. Ex-choristers sang lovely Reger and Stille nacht. Missa de angelis...

Tuesday to St Ethelburga's for conversations in the tent. After lunch Angharad talked about conflict so the session with the London interfaith group went on to 4. Kirit was there and Phiroza. I came home and then to Farm Street for Age to the church in need service for Syria. Oratory choir sang Allegri, Byrd and Lotti and we had benediction in Latin. Steven was there and Fr Dominic thanked us for coming. One tenor and a boy who sang top C stuck out. To Acton and watched end of the Great British sewing bee. Wednesday tried Acton parish church but it was locked so took Sean to Acton park café. We all went to Gunnersbury Park and had lunch there and enjoyed the playgrounds. Liz stayed overnight and I came home to take part in a webinar with Matthew Scott about resilient communities. I had fun with the  buggy twice getting the straps back in place! Bruce arrived unexpectedly and I went to art class and drew 4 bottles in charcoal. To Notting Hill Unitarian church for Alan Rainer's...

Icon Church of the Nativity Bethlehem Helen Suzman was a relentless critic of South Africa's Nationalist government. For 13 years, as sole member of the Progressive Party in parliament, she was the only MP to speak out against racial segregation, at a time when only the white minority enjoyed the right to vote. Born in 1917 to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, she married Dr Moses Suzman, who became one of South Africa's leading physicians. Five years after graduating from Witwatersrand University, she joined the staff as a lecturer in economic development. Helen Suzman's interest in disadvantaged urban Africans increased after she became a member of the South African Institute of Race Relations. She began to take an active role in politics after the 1948 election, when the mildly liberal United party was replaced by the National party, with its rigid policy of apartheid. Racial discrimination In 1952, standing for the United party, she was elected to the Hou...

Last night after a relatively quiet 9 to 5 at work Liz persuaded me to leave the quiet comfort of the lounge to go to St Paul's cathedral for the 11.15 watch night service. The Cambridge Heath Salvation Army band played very well and the precentor Canon Lucy Winkett spoke excellently. The cathedral looks splendid and I liked moving to the great West door during "Lord for the years" to hear the famous quote used by King George VI "I said to the man at the door of the year give me a light". We drove up via Tower Bridge and heard the fireworks. The journey home took a long time and every bus was packed! We go home at 1.45 a.m. Today we spoke to Ann on Skype having got Dennis on the mobile at midnight. We went by train to Westminster Cathedral and served at Mass. Fr Michael spoke about Mary and the Trinity and Deacon Ed said he had seen the fireworks from their roof terrace. Watched a lot of TV including the Vienna New Year concert, 3 hour programme on Vaughan Willi...

Fra Angelico Annunciation A wet day and at work! Carroll Stuhlmueller has a good meditation on today's readings. "The key to today's feast lies in the purifying force of obedience to God's will. Such obedience does not consist in complying with external directions nor in any grovelling loss of personal integrity, Yet it is the most compelling, non-negotiable demand - to be fully who we are at the depths of ourselves. There is always the temptation, experienced from the very beginning by our first parents, to settle for something less which nonetheless seems very good. Like Mary we are not capitulating to an unreasonable taskmaster but to the expectations of what we really are at the base and root of ourselves". From Biblical meditations for Advent and the Christmas season Paulist Press 1980. I am reminded of the Muslim insistence on complete obedience to God. We are freed by our obedience to serve the Lord in so many different ways. I sing of a maiden that is mak...

Tintern Abbey is in the Wye Valley and Wordsworth has written a wonderful poem about this magnificent ruin. Fr Michael Seed asked me to attend the meeting in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey of the Ecumenical society of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Philip Chatfield the sculptor gave a fascinating talk with slides about his background and the work he has done particularly in Wales. He spoke of his training in Newcastle with Jonah Jones a pupil of Eric Gill's and how he inherited Gill's hammer which Jonah Jones passed on to him. Philip worked as a crew member on the brig Maria Assumpta and he was saved when the sailing ship was wrecked on the North Cornish coast in 1995. A few days after the wreck his mallet was returned to him! He scuplted a figure of Mary at St Thomas's cross, Monmouth and then a statue of Mary for St Mary's church, Monmouth. He worked in the churchyard in public. The stone was blessed at the quarry by local clergy. He was told of fragment's of ...

Something about Mary An interesting evening which unfortunately I cannot attend.

Tintern Statue - forthcoming events Father Michael Seed SA has asked me to attend the lecture at Westminster Abbey and I plan to go.