Dean’s Blog – January 2018
Full moon over the Cathedral: 3rd January 2018
The Cathedral is a very photogenic at all times, but occasionally when there is a full moon rising from the East, it looks especially spectacular. Not that a photograph will never do justice to the real thing – well not mine anyway.
On Friday 5th January, the Tamil congregation visited our home following their service. They brought their own tea and refreshments and I was glad to offer them a supply of Christmas chocolates, which seemed to be very popular.
Visit to Year 2’s St Christopher’s School: Monday 8th January, 2018
Thank you Year Two children and parents for your wonderfully generous gift of BD 370- 430 from your production of The Mousehole Cat.
Stephen and I made an early morning trip down to St Christopher’s School to meet with Year 2 Council members and to receive generous cheque for Mission to Seafarer, the proceeds from their production of The Mousehole Cat, set in the village of Mousehole in Cornwall and one of my favourite children’s stories.
Going the Second Mile: Tuesday 9th January 2018
Stephanie says Darshan is known for “going the second mile” but I jumped at the opportunity of going for a bike ride. I’d actually brought a bike to Bahrain, but sadly have never felt I could use it around here with the pressures of traffic. The tires have perished in the heat and after eight years it has rusted away – it was piled onto the back of a lorry this week along with other junk around the compound. We set out from their home near the Camel Farm and headed south and after lunch at Zallaq beach we continued past the Formula One track and the Horse riding Endurance trail and arrived at our destination Al Jazira public beach before heading back. Checking the distance on our return we’d done about 60kms! No wonder the thighs were somewhat tight and we were both more than a little saddlesore, as we arrived back in the dark to have a very welcome hot bath… but it felt a good achievement.
The Season of Palm Cross making
Two weekends in two gardens and some hard work by a number of volunteers during the week has enabled us to fulfil our quota of 2000 palm crosses to take to the Diocesan Synod. 
Thank you so much for all who have taken part and to Grant and Angela for cutting down the palm fronds and preparing them for the workshops. I think we will continue to have a Friday morning event as we can clearly pull in a greater number of people attending worship and there was a good buzz over refreshments and learning how to make them.
Three Weddings and an Engagement Party
Appropriate to a week leading up to the Third Sunday of Epiphany and the reading of John 2 – the wedding at Cana in Galilee- has been three weddings in the Cathedral and an engagement party at Al Areen. I had been warned that when the invitation said from 7.30pm, it was unlikely to start much before 9pm, which indeed is when the young couple arrived and when Nithin on bended knee made a very public proposal asking Sharlin to marry him and presenting her with a ring. I was invited to lead some prayers for them and there were several speeches before food. A happy occasion, which I suspect lasted much longer after I made for home at 10.15pm knowing Friday was going to be a busy day.