St Christopher’s Cathedral and Awali Anglican Church
Dean's Blog

Back to Bahrain

Chris
We flew into Bahrain on the KLM flight which meant a rather longer journey than usual, leaving Kent on Tuesday 1th September afternoon, staying overnight near Heathrow and getting up at 3.30am to get a taxi to the airport for the 6.30am flight to Amsterdam, where we picked up a connecting flight to Abu Dhabi, arriving in Bahrain at 9.30pm – a long day!

I hit the ground running, the phone ringing at 7.20am on Thursday: Charles, who’d got excellent A’level results and the offer of a place at Bristol University and the necessary financial resources, refused a visa by the British Border Agency. As I have made clear to the Ambassador, I am finding the actions of this Agency the increasingly unacceptable face of the UK to the world. I was really delighted that by the end of the day, due to the Ambassador’s advocacy, that decision had been reversed and Charles will be heading off to Bristol for Freshers week on Monday. Congratulations to him!

50th BirthdayOn Friday there was the baptism by Stephen of Precious Lian in the morning service and in the evening we joined the family and friends for a party which was a combination of celebrating Precious Lian’s baptism with her grandmother’s 5oth birthday. I was invited to say a further prayer and present precious with a lighted candle.