Jon’s Ordination as priest: Saturday 5th September 2015

The Ordination of Jon Lavelle as priest and the reception that followed was one of the most memorable occasions at St Christopher’s that I can remember, an indication of how much the cathedral community in all its breadth has drawn Jon into their hearts. It was a joy to welcome guests from overseas: Peter Sedgwick, Jon’s Principal at St Michael’s College, Llandaff and his wife Jan Gould, a parish priest in Cardiff’s toughest parish, who has a remarkable music ministry ‘Making Music Changing Lives’ for which she recently received an award from the Prime minister in Downing Street www.walesonline.co.uk › News › Wales News › Church in Wales;  Steven a fellow ordinand with Jon at St Michael’s Llandaff, and the Rev’ds Gill Nisbet from Abu Dhabi and Paul Davies from Doha.     The party afterwards was a bundle of fun: excellent food supplied by the British Club, wine from Gulf Brands and special entertainment from Jon’s homegroup, led by our Kenyan community, and the Tamil congregation.

Jon celebrated at both Holy Communion services on Sunday with great joy with music led on the piano by Jan Gould.  Following the morning service I took Peter Sedgwick, Jan and Paul Davies out to the village of Al Dair (meaning monastery in Aramaic), the site of a pre-Islamic Christian monastery and apparently the mosque on the site is known as the monk’s mosque. We were welcomed by a music teacher Ali, who invited us back to his home for drinks and an impromptu oud and violin concert. We went on to Shaikh Isa’s house, one of my favourite places in Bahrain, before taking Paul to the airport.