The priesthood and the organists

To Vaughan House for a meeting organised by Westminster diocese. Fr Michael Heher, the vicar general of Orange county California reflected on the priesthood and how the laity can help. He was over to lead a retreat at Allen Hall. There was much to think about and he gave us a useful handout. It is a lonely and hard life - he said it is not a sprint to the next event but a marathon. There were lots of comments including a request for deacons. I chatted to a lady from Harrow. It seems to me that priests need to hand over the plant to the laity and meetings need to include the gospel. We need to address the desire for spirituality. As Fr Michael said we are to follow Christ, love God and love people. What the priest needs to hear is that we are doing that.
The meeting finished early so I got my pasta chicken salad and carrot cake from Marks (I forgot to take a picnic!)and went to Tate Britain where I watched a 1984 film by Derek Jarman "Imagining October" which was rather interesting nad filmed in Moscow.
Then got to the train to Beckenham Junction for the organists association AGM. Christian Strover who has been organist of Holy Trinity Beckenham since 1955 gave a fine recital including Bridge, Buxtehude, Daquin, Delibes and Liszt. I was pleased he played the Bridge piece form the Little organ book in memory of Hubert Parry. He played a Toccata Nuptiale by Christopher Maxim based on "Daisy, daisy" (the groom was a keen cyclist) and we sang "O praise ye the Lord". I played Andrew Moore Adagio dolente and Rawsthorne's Festal flourish. After tea and cakes we had the AGM at which I was duly confirmed as President from September. It was good to see Christopher Moore there. I reported on the plans for Oxford on May 10th. Got the train back to Victoria for Vespers and Mass. We had 6 servers plus Nick who was being a bit of a pain again. We got the train to pick up the car and listened to part of Prokofiev's "The Gambler" from the Met. Unloaded compost from the car. Liz completed the embroidered bell pull for Louise and Tom. She had made a cake for Tom. I watched the end of Sacred music 4, Liverpool RC cathedral on Easter Day and the Pope's Urbi et Orbi blessing in torrential rain.

Comments

Peter Simpson said…
Congratulations on your appointment as President. By the way, I did enjoy the Easter Sunday Mass from Liverpool - it had a good festive feel - though most of the congregation seemed a bit gloomy. The singing by the choir was excellent.
TheLennox said…
congratulations on being the president of the organists.
Thanks I've been President Elect for 2 years and it is an honour although of course it means more effort! Liverpool was great but the congregation seemed a bit scattered in that big place and one man never sang at all not even miming! The archbishop was great! They slightly tinkered with the order of the liturgy but it seemed to work.

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas letter

Vigil