A glorious...

...Epiphany carol service with the Ordinariate, held at St Mary's, Cadogan Street   The Cardinal Vaughan Schola sang - absolutely magnificently - and the candlelit church, which was full, was enchanting. Two great Christmas trees glittered on either side of the sanctury, candles glowed on the high altar and on either side of the pulpit from which there were  readings - one was done by the Duke of Norfolk, another by Mrs Jill Newton the wife of the Ordinary, another by journalist Peter Stanford, and so on...they included readings from Bl John Henry Newman and Bishop Launcelot Andrews among others. I was seated next to Fr Stephen Wang from Allen Hall, and as we stood to sing the first carol I whispered "Remember - Anglican heritage - these people really sing!"  and indeed they did - a magnificent sound and the church rang with it...the service finished with a beautiful Benediction, with a fanfare as the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and everyone sank to their knees...

On the way home, I stopped to buy a cup of hot chocolate at the station. A mistake: I balanced it on the edge of a seat on the Tube and of course it toppled over, spilling hot chocolate lavishly out on to the floor. "I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..."  I blurted as I tried to soak up the mess with one small hankerchief:...and then a group of sturdy Americans moved in to help, with paper tissues, and some one else proffered a newspaper, and soon we were all busy mopping and cleaning with great goodwill... afterwards, we all got chatting...the Americans were from California, on a Chaucer tour, so  I started "Wan that Aprille..." and we  recited a bit and talked about the Prioresse, and  povre persoun, and the parfit gentile knight and so on...I asked if they'd been to the George Inn at Southwark, which of course they had: "It was the first place we visited!"...all very chatty and agreeable, and by the time they got out at Earls Court we were real friends...

I was first taken to the George by my father for lunch as a teenager, with my sister  - in Girl Guide uniform as we'd just returned from summer camp! - and more recently it's been one of the pubs where we've gathered after Evensong at Pr Blood church, ...