Bishop’s Council Abu Dhabi
 On the Wednesday evening I moved on to Abu Dhabi for the Bishop’s Council and Standing Committee while Tricia flew back to Bahrain. Before the meeting began I was able to join Bishop Michael and Bill Schwartz on a tour of the new building work of St Andrew’s with Andy Thompson. It will clearly expand their facilities hugely both for themselves and the many churches and groups renting space.
The meeting itself was encouraging and certainly there wasn’t a feeling of panic as a result of the banking/economic crisis in Cyprus: it is still not apparent exactly what the implications are – perhaps a loss of 150,000 euros – but this can be managed over a period of two years by curtailing a proposed purchase of a house in Cyprus for the Executive Archdeacon and not making an immediate appointment to Aden. Returning to Bahrain we had the challenges of a lady visiting from the UAE with insufficient money, no accommodation and no change of clothes. She stayed with us four nights, we sorted her with a few more clothes and I put her on a plane back to Sharjah on Sunday morning -she had a return ticket- but it highlights some of the challenges of ministry in this part of the world when we do not have emergency accommodation. I have since been in touch with colleagues in Dubai, where she is well known. On Saturday evening we babysitted Jemima, the perfect baby, she slept all the time – so Kenny and Laura could have an evening out together before Laura returns to the UK in the coming week and Kenny completes his tour of duty with the Royal Navy here in two months’ time. It seems an age since either of us had done any babysitting and enabled us to read in peace. |