A walk around Middle Earth

I arrived at church quite early - even for me on a preaching day.  There was more to set up than usual. Slides and video.  Warner was already there.  Before prayer we combined the video's and presentations onto the one laptop.  That meant only two to switch between.  Christ Church had some electrical work completed during the week to satisfy the requirements of the quinquennial (5 yearly building inspection).  As a result the heaters had only just started and it was very cold.  Then we found that the sound system wasn't working.  Happily (especially for me) it was all fixed between 9:50 and 10:00.  My sermon 'script' is here. I used to follow the script very closely, but I do that much less now, so the text is what I planned rather than what I said..  There will be a recording posted on the Christ Church web site soon.  I tried to encourage people to listen to what God had to say to them.  I do not think I succeeded, but we will see if anyone goes to the vocations day.  They certainly enjoyed the video clip - watch the faces of the crowd and the judges if you follow the link in the sermon.

After lunch we drove to Warley for the monthly walk. About 50 of us gathered outside Fords.  Although the Sun was bright the day was cold so we were all glad to get moving.  People who are not regular members of the church are starting to join us for these walks, which is really good news.

We soon found ourselves in Middle Earth, somewhere in The Shire judging by the name on the gate.  (If you've never read Lord of the Rings, just ignore me for a bit!)  Our destination was Warley Place an Essex Wildlife Trust site that is only occasionally open to the public.  It was a house with a formal garden, but was sold to the trust who are letting it be reclaimed by wild life.  I spent a good while wandering round and talking to the trust staff.  The snow drops here are the biggest I've ever seen and put on a show to rival the blue bells (due in a couple of months).  I thought I'd better catch the others up, and returned to the entrance for what turned out to be a long wait.  A flask of coffee proved to be much more important than I had thought possible.  That and the walk back over still frozen puddles slowly warmed me up.

A very enjoyable day, the remainder of which was spent half awake in front of the television.  Stress and exercise had taken its toll.