The organist librarian

Delightful family zoom. Fisher house mass and services on you tube Caterham and Upper Norwood. Zoom of Caterham folk. Peregrine is OK. More Ride upon the storm which is very absorbing the problems created by a domineering father a Danish Lutheran priest. Zoom Death cafe very interesting. Nelson colours. Prayers from St John's. Antiques roadshow Young musician piano final. Liz found more boxes of old papers. I cut Liz's hair for the first time and it was OK! Excellent talk on John Fisher from Mgr Mark Langham.

Great to chat on what's app to Louise and the boys, also Henry and Skype with Ann. 1985 Met opera Aids with fabulous Leontyne Price, Cossotto, Mackerran, Estes and Vickers. Curtain calls after every act and heavy costumes leadng to static singers. Frankenstein from National theatre with Benedict Cumberbatch. Ride upon the storm and Father Brown. Discovered mass from Fisher house Cambridge. Andrew Lloyd Webber 50th birthday from Albert Hall. A new exercise routine. Threw out more oof papers.

Swam, Mass at Anerley, painting, Nick Scott cleared up my laptop meanwhile Liz went to St Chad's school 50th anniversary and talk on trafficking at Hackney hospice. She visited Julie-Anne in Bow. We both went to King's chaplaincy room to hear  Mark Langham  speak excellently on "Can Catholics celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation?" the answer being to some extent Yes. Fell asleep during programme on Mandarin Hyde Park hotel and British Muslims. Liz was really scathing about the Last Night painting and my portrait of Louise. I agree they both need changes. 

Monday a.m. trains to Strawberry Hill and installed in comfortable room (although the bed was a bit narrow and I woke early every time). Unfortunately I managed to leave my conference file with my notebook and sketchbook behind so have to work from memory. The speakers were outstanding with contributions from Jerusalem, Rome, USA, Rome, Bangalore, Prague and Malta and from all over the country. I have made some new friends and contacts not least interfaith folk from Birmingham and Newcastle. We began with Norman Tanner on the history. It seems Paul VI in this encyclical influenced the Council and began the dialogue emphasis. Gavin d'Costa and Damian Howard and David McLoughlin were prominent. Mark Langham and Robin Gibbons came for 2 sessions and  Kallistos Ware. Abbot Timothy Wright introduced Of Gods and men and it was wonderful to see the film again and learn more of its context. On the Tuesday Archbishop Bernard Longley celebrated Mass and attended the reception and dinner. Th...

We set off and parked as near to Norwood Junction as possible. Got train and waited at Liverpool street. Only £3.75 return slower but cheaper and bought in advance! Bus into town. Only 2 scholars appeared today. At Emmanuel (visited before) and then to Queens' where Nick Morris demonstrated the very loud Binns and I played Moore. 17 in the party including the talkative Michael Cooke! Michael Toplis tended to hog it a bit. To Trinity Hall (visited before) and you go up a back staircase in the next court to reach the loft! Lunch was hopeless and Liz brought my pizza to the next venue Christ's where the porter simply handed me a vestry key and gave no clues. Eventually I found the right door behind a curtain. This is a lovely mellow organ.Had I know Sidney Campbell was a fellow here I would have brought some of his music!  On to Peterhouse where I again played some Couperin. Barry Ferguson based organ pieces on the lovely stained glass here. Another fine instrument and then to St...

Monday 30 lengths and my right leg twinging. I went to tai chi and that helped. David joined the class so Tony went over the moves more slowly which helped. Left at 6 to get to first rehearsal and explanation from Paul. We are first acolytes leading the clergy of the diocese in from either side and consecration torches. Home early and caught up on Channel 4 programme on male beauty. Tuesday 40 lengths. Did lots of posters including book sale and reading group. Saw Zia about training and IIP. Left at 6 and this was a long rehearsal. The servers are in the Blessed Sacrament chapel which means we can see nothing and there is no TV monitor. The BBC were there and Thomas and Paul went over several things twice. The new MacMillan antiphons were sung by the boys. The beautiful consecration torches (black wood and silver) borrowed from the Oratory are quite heavy and tall. The actual move up into the sanctuary doesn't feel right at the moment. We are doing a fan movement and we might be be...

From the church at Shepherds Fields Bethlehem Christmas Eve hoovered the whole house! Set the table and put up the cards - not as many as last year I think. Some very interesting letters included! Watched Christmas QI and set off for Coulsdon for 2 crib services 4 and 5 p.m. This meant I only heard the start of King's carols. Liz went to Vespers and Vigil Mass at the cathedral. The services went well and we gave out lots of the Coulsdon CDs for free. People seemed pleased and I spoke to lady from Purley who was delighted. Also met the bride for the wedding blessing in May. I picked up Dennis and Ann Marie at Coulsdon South - they flew into Gatwick. Watched some of King's on TV and then had a short sleep on the bed. The Midnight Mass went well especially the Haydn Mass. I thought some of the carols beforehand went a little sharp. John brought Nicole to sing - she just stopped coming this year with no explanation! One person was late for the warm-up so I commented on the importa...

Saturday to work and Elizabeth's last working day. To Vespers and Mass when we had extra servers including Emmanuel who I calmly told that we looked after this Mass. He and Noel wanted to do all sorts of extras like offertory procession but we vetoed it. Mgr Mark celebrated and gave an excellent homily about Roadrunner ( he said he felt like coyote who is suddenly no longer on firm ground)and planting seeds. The farewell party in the hall was a bring and share and there was loads to eat. Chatted to lots of folk including Judith a reader who I had not spoken to before. Gave Fr Mark 2 CDs (Addiscombe and Coulsdon) and he got lots of gifts and nice speeches. He will be back from Rome one day in a different capacity! A sad but happy day. Bruce is OK after his cyst op but insisting on cycling!

Sunday was a quiet day as we were both tired and Monday 22 lengths (late up)and after work we watched Andy Murray come back from nowhere to win at Wimbledon! Tuesday to Battersea Power station for Wandsworth business forum breakfast and meeting and a chance to see the display about the new plans. Horrified to see an enormous chimney which will dominate the whole area and the skyline! Why an extension of the Northern line from Kennington - the Battersea society proposal of a tram is much better. No plans to upgrade to 2 local rail stations either! Still the concepts are stunning. I arranged for staff to go and see the display. I returned to the Power station for the start of the community forum meeting which was poorly attended - perhaps like me they did not get the invite! I filled in my comments form and was pleased to note that apart from running 2 cars we tick all the boxes on green issues. To Westminster cathedral hall for the farewell to the remarkable, lovable, infuriating Fr Mi...

Some of the Vietnamese children who did a beautiful calm dance after communion. To cathedral for 11 a.m. Mass for migrants with the Cardinal, Bishop Thomas MacMahon of Brentwood and Bishop Pat (who used to be parish priest of South Norwood!). 47 ethnic chaplains. Saw Martin Foster and Bernadette Farrell. I was mitre and Liz was book and communion torch. Good choir from Trinity college and lovely dance by Vietnamese children after communion. Much discussion of Mgr Mark's departure. He really IS the cathedral so he will be much missed. Fr Christopher has taken over as administrator and Fr Swavek will be sub-administrator - he is not back from Spain. To Bow where we had a picnic. Bruce had made up a table on back patio and he used our hose and lance to clean the patio and threw out loads of rubbish. The kitchen looks great and had a pizza with Jack and Bianca in glorious sunshine. I watched DVDs of "Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix" and "40 year old virgin...

The CTBI materials for the week can be found here and they are rather good this time. We are urged by Paul to pray without ceasing. when we left the Abbey service on Friday we were given a rather useful booklet from the Bible Society with biblical quotes about unity. The Dean of St Paul's gave an excellent sermon at Vespers on Sunday. He told of how as a young curate he became angry at a funeral where the 2 sides of a family would not speak and he refused to allow them to leave the crematorium until they spoke to each other. We plan to be at Vespers at St Paul's tomorrow at 5 p.m. sung by Westminster Cathedral choir. It was most unfortunate that St Paul's cathedral choir sang evensong at the cathedral on Friday night when we were at the Abbey service. Mgr Mark preached at Westminster Central Hall on Sunday.