Can these bones live ?

 Well! Here am I enabling Easter Sunday at a church where 40 years ago I was rector! Quietly preparing things in church on Saturday night, I had time to reflect on the passage of time. There are a handful of people from the old days, like me older but not necessarily wiser, still part of the church community.  Not all the gaps left by those who have died have been filled. Any replacements are new arrivals in the village.  It appears that none of the baptisms or confirmations in the last 40 years have resulted in new church members. 

For me, getting excited in advance of today's service,  the most shocking deficit was the lack of Easter Flowers. From forty years ago there used to be great competition between flower arrangers; and I can still tell you which was Dolly Clarke's window and that Mrs Pettit decorated the font. This Easter Sunday there are silk flowers. That's all!

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