Memory Lane

We’re back in what the locals call Norn Irn for a suprise party – tho’ if I told you about it it wouldn’t be a surprise.

Anyway it gave us the opportunity for a few visits just to check things out. A visit to McMahons in Portadown for the suit is always high on the agenda. I know that it is possible to buy clothes in other places but …. the object of the exercise is to buy the first suit which John offers me because he knows better than I do what is required. We did manage that this time – although the need to try on a second one did represent a slight failure of nerve, although it was of course rejected.

We did some visiting of old friends and tuned in to the debate in the special Church of Ireland General Synod today about whether there should be an Episcopal Election in the Diocese of Tuam. It’s a question not unlike questions which we also face – and which we answer by stretching ourselves across the space between the prudent measurement of viability and the faith-full assessment of mission potential.

The north coast of Northern Ireland – particularly around Portstewart and Portrush – is simply horrendous. One looks at the building development and tries in vain to deduce what the planning policy might be. As we’ve headed east towards Ballycastle, things have improved and we’re now looking across the sea to Rathlin Island – the space across which Marconi first experimented with radio signals. We also took a brief look at the Corrymeela Community of Reconciliation which is located on a cliff top just outside the town. Like the Iona Community with which it is closely linked, it is a dispersed religious community. There were periods when I was closely involved there and it was one of the things which kept me going.