Mike's musings

New stole

Last week, a stole arrived from Jacquie Binns. I'd commissioned her to make me one, which my old benefice had very, very kindly sponsored, and I'm really, really pleased with it. It's a white stole (for use on occasions such as baptisms and weddings) and I had it made so that it's very personal to me.

On the right side, there's a Jerusalem Cross. I went to the Holy Land when I was just 8 years old, and the Jerusalem Cross has been special to me ever since.

On the left side, there the letters "IHS" (from the first three letters of "Jesus" in Greek) are spelled in binary ASCII. I know this is geeky, but it reflects who I am, and I'm really happy with it.

Both sides are embroidered through in rainbow colours, to reflect the importance for me of inclusivity in the church: high and low, rich and poor, male and female, gay or straight, disabled or able-bodied...

Unluckily, the lighting doesn't do the stole justice, as it's really beautiful and has a lovely glossed finish. Thanks to the benefice, and thanks to Jacquie Binns.

Labels: clergy, clothing

Rehearsal and retreat

(backposting) This morning, as I've taken holiday, I spent the time getting stuff ready. This included clearing the area around my office up a bit so that you can get round it, realising that my surplice (which is second hand) has some unremovable stains, emptying the bins, packing and the rest. Then headed off to Chelmsford via Tesco's (razors, if you care), before parking up (quite a long way from the cathedral), and then walking over to the town centre, getting some food and heading off to the cathedral.

The first rehearsal was for the Bradwell and Colchester episcopal areas (which includes me). We had to do it in cassocks, mainly because we practiced kneeling and getting up, as well as processing. If you don't know what you're doing, and you're not used to kneeling (and getting up) in long dresses, cassocks can be quite dangerous, and this was a good plan. It all went pretty well: though it's scary that we're at this point already. Sunday's the day.

After the rehearsal, three of us (Mandy, Iain and I) agreed to walk back to our cars in our cassocks. And I needed to put my sunglasses on, of course. The problem was that I discovered that _my_ car was parked rather a lot further on than theirs, but decided to go with it. So, I walked through the centre of Chelmsford (including through Debenhams) in my cassock. English people are very funny. Nobody looked at me particularly as I approached them, though I was sure I could feel their gazes boring into my back. So, after some problems getting my satnav to work, I made it to Pleshey.

Pleshey is where the Chelmsford Diocesan House of Retreat is. I had a room in the Gatehouse which was entirely fine: you don't expect luxury on a retreat. The next few days will have lots of services, some addresses from the retreat leader, and a fair amount of silence (though you don't have to be silent when you're out of the house, which is useful when you want to pop out to the pub).

Labels: clothing, ordination