Pentecost weekend: 22-24th May 2015

May 2015

In part inspired by our trip to Kenya and Uganda, I invited the Kenyan community to sing the Swahili song Moto umewaka leo (God’s fire is burning in my soul God’s fire has come to make me whole, God’s fire is sweeping through the earth, Praise God I’ve got God’s fire!) which they did with great rhythm and gusto (especialy John on the drums). Pentecost is the day when God spoke through the disciples to people from every country under heaven in the language that each nation group understood, so it seemed especially appropriate to celebrate Pentecost in this way.

By Saturday evening I was in Cyprus and Nicosia for the Installation and Licensing service for Jeremy Crocker the new Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, Nicosia on Sunday evening. I attended the morning service at the cathedral too and was encouraged by the sizeable congregation given that the big service was in the evening and met up with Caissa, Arthur Firkins’s wife – Arthur attends St Christopher’s while living and working in Saudi Arabia. A group regularly comes across the causeway from Saudi for worship.

On Sunday evening after a special celebration to welcome Jeremy I headed for Katafiyio, the Diocesan Retreat House in foothills of the Troodos Mountains. I was able to prepare a sermon on Monday morning, do some reading and get out for a couple of longish walks. As well as some theological reading – a book by Angela Ashwin The Wine Danced  – I finished A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman, who describes himself as a Swedish blogger columnist and author.

On Tuesday late  afternoon I was kindly picked up by Anetta from the Diocesan Office, who took me to Larnaca and the Lordos Beach Hotel, in full swing holiday mode, for the Bishop’s Council and Standing Committee Meeting on the Wednesday. I wonder what the holidaymakers make of the members of this group in our very different dress….