Smells and bells

Interesting couple of weeks services: last Sunday a Rogation celebration in a big barn a mile from here; tomorrow a bilingual communion for the French guests of the people of Bratton Clovelly, on their annual twinning exchange from Nonant. Inbetween, an Ascension service in which we snuffed out scented candles to signify that whilst Christ has gone in substance he's still around (as in 'May the fragrance of Jesus fill this place'). And today a service for the Okehampton Deanery Ringers Association ringing competition. It's also St Petroc's Day, so very appropriate to be in the church of that name, in Lydford, for the occasion. And that gave me a theme, a meditation on whether the peregrini, the wandering Welshman Petroc, was a model for bellringers, or whether they should stick with the  (at least) four patron saints they already have, including Agatha, whose breasts, brutally cut from her body at her martyrdom, were mistaken by early ringers guilds as bells, and adopted as guild emblems.... Ringing the good news on Saint Petroc’s Day: today's talk.

Comments

[Revsimmy]

All the best with the bilingual communion service, John. I wonder if you already have a set order handed down from previous years or whether you have to devise it yourself?

About a year after we moved here I had a wedding with a French groom and a coachload of his family and friends from across the channel. The Anglican Church of Canada website was invaluable for providing a decent translation of key parts of the service. Feedback from the groom's family was encouraging.

Hope it goes well tomorrow.
Simon

[John Davies]

Good to hear from you Simon, and thanks for your good wishes. The twinning goes back thirty-plus years and the service booklet they had in church needed freshening up. So I cobbled something together using a combination of online translations (including the Canadian one) and help from local French speakers. Service went well I think, an interesting experience.