 On Saturday Tricia, Elizabeth George and I flew out to Cyprus at the start of the gathering of lay and clergy representatives from the dioceses of Exeter (U.K), Thika (Kenya) and Cyprus and the Gulf. We were staying in Nicosia with Dean John Tyrell and his wife Carol and half the guests were staying with hosts in Nicosia while the other half were with hosts in Larnaca.  Three Dioceses, but four cathedrals, as the first day in Nicosia demonstrated with the three Deans (Nicosia, Exeter and Bahrain) and one Provost (Thika) concelebrated at the Sunday morning Eucharist and then planted four citrus trees in honour of this special occasion in the Cathedral grounds.
 The service and planting was followed by food in true Cypriot hospitality, speeches, traditional Filipino dancing in costumes from the Baguio district of the Philippines, reminiscent of the Filipino community that was part of the Hong Kong Cathedral family when we lived there, singing by a delightful children’s group and by our friends from Thika.
 One of the special joys of the week was getting to know Cathedral colleagues from our partner dioceses and to establish a relationship with them over the days that we were there and for me, renewing my links with several people who knew the village where I taught in the mid-70’s and to practise my very basic Kikuyu. In the evening the Nicosia group headed high into the Troodos mountains to St George’s where we had evening prayer.
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On Saturday Tricia, Elizabeth George and I flew out to Cyprus at the start of the gathering of lay and clergy representatives from the dioceses of Exeter (U.K), Thika (Kenya) and Cyprus and the Gulf. We were staying in Nicosia with Dean John Tyrell and his wife Carol and half the guests were staying with hosts in Nicosia while the other half were with hosts in Larnaca. 
Three Dioceses, but four cathedrals, as the first day in Nicosia demonstrated with the three Deans (Nicosia, Exeter and Bahrain) and one Provost (Thika) concelebrated at the Sunday morning Eucharist and then planted four citrus trees in honour of this special occasion in the Cathedral grounds.
