A Very, Very Old Lady.
It's been busy, and we've been bad about writing Sorry y'all.
There are several things I'm hoping to write about sometime soon. I've been in a Welsh Class this term, which is bendegedig! It's not an easy language, but it is definitely made easier by the fact that all the signage is done in both languages and I actually hear a fair amount of Welsh spoken around. I would not call myself fluent (or even conversational, not by a far stretch), but I can at least say hello and ask for things now, and the vocabulary is slowly building.
Dad and Susan also came. We had a great time, though Charley was rather ill for a good chunk of their visit. Even so, we visited Mold, Ruthin, Liverpool, Llangollen, Conwy, and Holyhead, and they went for a visit to London where they took in a show and saw some sights. More on that later as well.
While they were in London, however, I wound up with a meeting on the morning of my day off that is not the sort of meeting I usually have. Instead, one friday morning I found myself climbing up a ladder into the ceiling over the porch at St. Michael's Nannerch. We celebrated not long ago the feast of St. Michael and All Angels with pomp and circumstance. Using the 1662 canon, and incense, we celebrated the way they would have when the new church building was dedicated on Michaelmas during the reign of Queen Victoria.
A few weeks later while cleaning out years worth of sticks deposited in the belltower by jackdaws two of our most dedicated parishioners noticed something set in the wall.
St. Michael's has been around for a little longer than the current building. In fact, it's been around quite a bit longer. There has been a church there since the mid-1200s. And what we'd found in the wall looked like it might have been there from nearly the beginning.
And so that Friday morning I found myself up the belltower with the diocesan archeologist (not many of those in the States, I'm willing to wager), and a professor of Archeology from the University of Chester.
It was a fascinating time. It turns out that we had hidden above the door in the wall a slab from a sepulcher that likely dates to the 14th century, within the first 100 years of the history of this church. We believe it is the same one mentioned in the records of the rebuilding of the church. Though the Victorians were not shy about, shall we say, putting things the way they should have been done the first time, the architect here seems to have decided this was worth saving, even if he didn't want it inside his church. It appears to be placed quite deliberately in it's spot, and fortunately has been protected from the elements as a result.
The hope is that some graduate students can come out and undertake a more significant scientific study of the stone, but even so, the diocesan archeologist called it "Certainly the most fascinating thing I've found while doing this job!"
The vocation of the priesthood is many things, but certainly amongst them must be listed "unpredictable." There's always something new and interesting and challenging coming down the pike, and often it's not something you ever would have expected, like a significant stone of an unknown but locally important lady who drew her last breath 700 years ago.
There are several things I'm hoping to write about sometime soon. I've been in a Welsh Class this term, which is bendegedig! It's not an easy language, but it is definitely made easier by the fact that all the signage is done in both languages and I actually hear a fair amount of Welsh spoken around. I would not call myself fluent (or even conversational, not by a far stretch), but I can at least say hello and ask for things now, and the vocabulary is slowly building.
Dad and Susan also came. We had a great time, though Charley was rather ill for a good chunk of their visit. Even so, we visited Mold, Ruthin, Liverpool, Llangollen, Conwy, and Holyhead, and they went for a visit to London where they took in a show and saw some sights. More on that later as well.
While they were in London, however, I wound up with a meeting on the morning of my day off that is not the sort of meeting I usually have. Instead, one friday morning I found myself climbing up a ladder into the ceiling over the porch at St. Michael's Nannerch. We celebrated not long ago the feast of St. Michael and All Angels with pomp and circumstance. Using the 1662 canon, and incense, we celebrated the way they would have when the new church building was dedicated on Michaelmas during the reign of Queen Victoria.
A few weeks later while cleaning out years worth of sticks deposited in the belltower by jackdaws two of our most dedicated parishioners noticed something set in the wall.
St. Michael's has been around for a little longer than the current building. In fact, it's been around quite a bit longer. There has been a church there since the mid-1200s. And what we'd found in the wall looked like it might have been there from nearly the beginning.
And so that Friday morning I found myself up the belltower with the diocesan archeologist (not many of those in the States, I'm willing to wager), and a professor of Archeology from the University of Chester.
It was a fascinating time. It turns out that we had hidden above the door in the wall a slab from a sepulcher that likely dates to the 14th century, within the first 100 years of the history of this church. We believe it is the same one mentioned in the records of the rebuilding of the church. Though the Victorians were not shy about, shall we say, putting things the way they should have been done the first time, the architect here seems to have decided this was worth saving, even if he didn't want it inside his church. It appears to be placed quite deliberately in it's spot, and fortunately has been protected from the elements as a result.
The hope is that some graduate students can come out and undertake a more significant scientific study of the stone, but even so, the diocesan archeologist called it "Certainly the most fascinating thing I've found while doing this job!"
The vocation of the priesthood is many things, but certainly amongst them must be listed "unpredictable." There's always something new and interesting and challenging coming down the pike, and often it's not something you ever would have expected, like a significant stone of an unknown but locally important lady who drew her last breath 700 years ago.
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