2 CAUSES FOR CELEBRATION!

My mind and my prayers have been with my son all afternoon, as he was taking his viva for his doctorate. He’d been pretty anxious about it – not at all typical of him – which made me feel very concerned.

At 6pm I got a text: ‘Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.’ For those of you unenlightened in student message-speak, this means ‘it’s gone really well and I’ve passed!’

YEEEE – HAH!!!

Half an hour later I was on the bus to the cathedral, where I was meeting my students who have completed the diocesan course I’ve been teaching over the past 10 months. There was a big celebration service where the certificates were given out. Two students had also been invited to give people Communion with me, which is a huge honour. For me this experience is always the edge of heaven – and the other two had never given people the cup of wine before, so it was new for them. At first they were nervous, wondering if they would remember how to do everything in the right order. But they were fine.

As we went into the vestry at the end of the distribution of Communion, with our chalices and the paten (plate for the consecrated bread) one of my students just said, very quietly, ‘Wow’.

That says it all.