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Saturday 9 April 2011

Bring me sunshine!

It's a bright sun shiny day in Canterbury!

It's been a month, all bar one day, since I last posted on here. I'm going to blame the pressures of work, the economy, David Cameron, Tonty Blair (well, everyone else always blames him for world poverty and everything else!!) and I might as well blame President Obama....notice how I've blamed everyone and everything apart from myself...maybe I should become a Member of Parliament!

Well, the Diocesan Synod went ahead as planned, and it went well. Roy and I were pretty good as a double act for the purpose of serving during mass, we even made it look like we knew what we were doing! In fact, we nearly fooled ourselves!

During the Synod meeting we heard that the Anglican Catholic Church, Diocese of the United Kingdom has experienced a 12% growth within the last year. That news is very encouraging indeed. Although in real terms it is only a small number of people the fact that in terms of Church growth 12% is very good is very positive. There are many other denominations that would beg for 12% growth, in fact there are some Churches that would beg for any growth, or even just stabilisation without any more losses to both congregations and clergy alike!

We also received the annual accounts, and the figures were good. It clearly shows to anyone looking at us from outside that we are serious. Although again in real terms the figures are fairly small, considering that we are a small Church within the UK it clearly evidences positive growth.

My year of office on the Council of advice was up, so I volunteered my services for a 2 year position and this was accepted by Synod.

Canterbury Church Shop - - is going well, our range of products seem to be ever increasing. We now stock Deacon's stoles and will soon have a range of dalmatics in stock, we also have some more jewellery items and a range of products from the Holy Land, including a small range of Armenian pottery.

Our recent application to Canterbury City Council for a Premises Licence to enable us to sell communion wine, etc has now been approved, so we will shortly be stocking this range of products also. If you are ever in Canterbury then it is certainly worth a visit to the shop. We are usually open Tuesday to Saturday from 9am until 5.30pm...we do close from 1pm until 2pm for lunch though, although often I pop out to grab something and then return to the shop and open early! We're closed on Sundays, Mondays and Holy Days of Obligation. Our website does feature 98% of our products though and they are all available to mail order.

Talking of visiting Canterbury, last week Libby Bova and her husband Revd Jerry Bova from the ACC in the USA visited Canterbury during their holiday (sorry Libby, I mean vacation!!) to England. They visited the shop and purchased a few items which was great. I've met libby before, but it was the first time meeting her husband, who has recently been ordained Deacon.

Last Sunday Deacon Bova was the guest preacher at mass, unfortunately I wasn't at Church as I had pulled a muscle in my back the previous day and was kind of stuck in bed (mainly due to some over effective painkillers!). It went well though by all accounts. I think Bishop Damien enjoyed it as it gave him a rest...some would say taht the congregation enjoyed a rest from one of his sermons, but I would NEVER suggest such a thing!!! : )

Ethan and Hollie are being baptised on Easter Day, Sunday 24th April 2011, which is also Ethan's 6th birthday, it will also me the one year anniversary of my confirmation...how time flies!

I was weighed at Slimming World last Tuesday and found out that I've lost half a stone so far, Debbie has done slightly better and has lost 10lbs to date. It's been a consistant week on week loss so far, so I am happy with that. I want to get to my target by the time I go to Florida in October for the Provincial Synod, at least that way I'll have a bit more room in my seat on the plane and I'll have a bit of extra room for those American portions!! LOL

That's about it for now, so until next time........