Palm Sunday

You can tell it's getting warmer. There is a buzz in the kitchen. A wasp has arrived. I hastily open a window, retreat closing the door behind me.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. For the first time our church decided to process from the Church Hall to the church itself. I tagged on behind in the Mean Machine, my electric scooter. It was easier doing that than trying to dodge between all those legs. People just don't see scooters & wheelchairs when they're in a crowd - too low down, below eye level.

I can't see me joining such a procession again. I didn't feel going along so slow, with everyone talking about their latest activities, their weekends away, particularly good to focus on the point of the procession or to put me in an appropriate state of mind for the coming service. 

At the church doors something was said. I know not what as I was too far back to hear.

Eventually I got in. By this time I'd missed the notices & the first hymn. Indeed it was halfway through the actual service. 

What is more I'd been too late to be given the paper sheet with the list of events in the coming Holy Week. As the parish magazine for April will not be delivered until mid-July I depend on these paper sheets to know what is happening. 

All in all it was not a very satisfactory service for me.

I confess I'm seriously considering changing churches. The one I go to at present is the nearest, but there are times I feel most unwelcome. Even now, after attending for nearly 11 years, I still end up waiting around outside to ask someone to let me in as they've forgotten to unlock the door accessed by the ramp. It can be a cold wait on a freezing winter's day! Not so bad on a sunny summer one!

The parish magazine is now being delivered three month's worth at a time. As a result I can no longer partake of the service at home by reading the appropriate Bible passages as everyone else. I only hear of special events after they have happened. I no longer feel a part of the community, of the parish.

The new vicar, installed now for over 6 months, has barely spoken a word to me personally. I appreciate she obviously needed to get to know the PCC members first. They're the people she needs to work with to keep the church running. I know I don't get to church every week, but I would have thought, by now, I merited an enquiry as to whether I would appreciate a visit, especially when she said in her mission statement when she became the priest here, that one of her main aims was to stretch out more into the parish, involve people more in the church. Maybe that's the problem. She suspects I'm not likely to get more involved in parish activities due to my physical limitations & assumes I'm already caught for Christ so why waste her energies on me.