Revisting St Barts and Crooks Peak

Today I sped off to St Barts to play for the morning service. Many of you will know that I sang in the choir and played the organ here from 1987-1990 and then 1997 - 2003. It was twelve years ago that I arrived back in the west country having hopped off a train with two suitcases having been away in Lampeter (3 years) leeds (2 years) and Burton year and a half year.
It was also the week as Peter Bailey started as preist in charge of St Barts along with Heather his wife. He could often be seen cycling around the parish on his bike. Anyway when I popped along to St Barts today I heard that Peter was going to retire - and it seemed to take all my thoughts back to that day when I arrived back in Bristol. Can it really be so long? Ireland, Vicky Holly, orchestra, new friends e.t.c. have all happened in that time since.
As I walked into the church and saw several familiar faces it seemed to take me back to the late 1980's except the people there are now older - including myself! The Victorian church (A massive building) has been reordered with carpets, chairs and a kitchen and loo in the redundant south aisle and some ramps built up outside. It was a nice service but sadly the organ ( an especially good one) was hardly playable.
The congregation were fitted into the side aisle - again I felt a bit sad that the congregation has now got so low in number here that they can fit in the side chapel with ease. When I was here the congregation comfortably filled up the nave.
Afterwards it was nice to meet up and chat to some familiar faces and hear how things have been . I remembered some of the former choir, 'Mac' 'Frank' and Ken but it was nice to see Miv there too.
Afterwards I drove over to Mellies who was packing for her move and then drove through the long route to Crooks Peak Via the standing Stones at Stanton Drew including three stones called The Cove which I had never heard of. We had an ice cream at Chew Valley lake and then walked through hanging wood up on to the huge hulk of Crooks peak and along the ridge.
We ended the day out in the Dove cote at Long Ashton.
It certainly feels like an era having heard Peter is leaving St Barts and made me feel reflective on how quick the last 12 years have gone.

I have also started reading a book about Monasticism I picked up at Tintern Abbey. Don't worry I have no intention of becoming a monk - I couldn't get into the habit. However it was book written by a Benedictine monk at Worth Abbey who was part of a reality TV programme where four different people from conrasting backgrounds attempted to get to grip with monastic life. The book is not so much a religious book in the convetional sense but deals with the importance of having some kind of 'sanctuary' in our lives - a place where we can take stock of ourselves.
One of the issues Abbot Jamison covers is silence and how important it is in these where we are so 'busy.' I found this interesting because I like silence. It seems strange for someone who plays loud musical instruments to like silence. However I find it helpful to have quiet and to gather my thoughts. I think there are different types of 'noise' and I find background noise both stressful and irritable. Good noise for me is music - or sound I want to hear. Bad noise - is the background sound of radios or noise from people around me which makes it very hard to focus on what I'm doing. I found the chapter on why silence is important and useful - interesting. It's well known in mental health circles that background noise affects mood.
The chapter on community was interesting - the abbot mentioned that the word community is often overused and has lost it's meaning. i.e. IT community, or radio controlled car community. The abbot suggests that being part of a community should be something much wider than our own particular interest in terms of culture and our responsbilities to those who are weaker, less well off than ourselves.
An interesting book and quite thought provoking...