What a joyful event last Sunday’s confirmation was! Every time I think about it, I can’t help smiling. Austen Redman’s photo of the our four confirmands, Ray, Veronica, Jean and Garry as they answer Bishop Alison wonderfully evokes the both the solemnity of the occasion and its great joy.

This week, of course, has been much quieter - we can’t live on the mountain-top all the time - but I continue to be certain that this was such a great moment not just for those who were confirmed, but for our life as a church.

And it was so lovely afterwards to be able to celebrate together with our first after-service coffee since the beginning of the pandemic. While some people, understandably, may feel cautious about gatherings, my feeling is that those who gathered in the Arlington Hall really enjoyed the chance to meet and talk together.

We are therefore going to reintroduce after-service coffee in the Hall once a month - it’s yet to be decided which week it will be, and there’ll be more news soon. I hope this will be another sign of the vitality of our common life, and that, as the weeks and months pass, that it will flourish and blossom.

with my prayers and blessings, Nicola