Post 17/2023 Cornwall UK Sunday 14 May . . . To describe our week would take a high tide swell of words and photographs–with too little time to surf through it all. We conclude our stay here at week’s end. So, a few words and photographs are called to the rescue. The week encompasses: Coronation of King Charles III. Concluding visit of niece Jan and husband John. Our celebration of 50 years of marriage. Sorting and packing like one does in moving house. Adieu to St Anta and All Saints in the worship today led by Bishop Philip and Vicar Etienne.

The Coronation

The Coronation service took place in Westminster Abbey on 7 May. The prayer that was part of the second photo below included these words: “God of compassion and mercy, whose Son was sent not to be served but to serve, grant grace that I may find in thy service perfect freedom and in that freedom knowledge of thy truth.”

On Saturday, 6 May we watched the Coronation and on Sunday evening the Coronation Concert. Celebrations took place across Cornwall and throughout the nation.

Penlee Gallery and Museum

Tuesday, we visited the Penlee Gallery and Museum in Penzance. It rained torrents, punctuated with a clap of thunder. Perhaps our favourite painting at the gallery is The Rain it Raineth Every Day 1889, by Norman Garstin. My spirits rise every time I visit Penlee. There’s something in the works–rural, seafaring and town–of the Newlyn School and Lamorna artists (1880s-1940s) that stirs my soul, as does the small collection of 6,000 years of history in West Cornwall–archaeological finds, ceramics, social history, fashion. The walk in the rain we’ll long remember.

Truro

Wedding Anniversary

On our 50th wedding anniversary we walked on the South West Coast Path from Carbis Bay to where St Michael’s Way starts at the St Uny Church in Lelant (St Michael’s way is part of the Camino Ingles to Santiago). In Lelant Marty and I joined friends for a cream tea at the Lelant Heritage Centre, part of the St Uny Church. The benefice serves cream teas on Thursdays and Fridays. Notable about the day was the reflective walk, the fellowship around the table, the heritage setting and dinner with friends at the Bucket of Blood Pub in Hayle.

An attempt to summarize

During the first days after our visitors arrived I asked if anyone cared to summarize. “Uphill,” John immediately said. Steep grades are a fact of life in a seaside town, as they are in a land graduating from sheer cliffs to ancient, hedged fields and wild granite-topped moors.

The words of English churchman and historian Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) carry water uphill for me: “Seeing’s believing, but feeling’s the truth.” The tiny area of farthest south west County Cornwall, where we’ve spent most of our time, has unbelievable beauty and places, paths and people that evoke feelings of life’s truths.

Certainly, Cornwall has many challenges and needs, shared across the nation. Big ones, like affordable housing, better wages, worker shortage, higher costs of living, lagging economy, scarce water, predicably unpredictable weather (so it seems), as other matters social, political and religious.

A question I ask myself: “What difference has the past three months sojourn meant to me?”

That’s hard to answer succinctly, though I smile at a quote from Thomas Fuller: “If an ass goes travelling he will not come home a horse.”

Let me gallop on to other of Fuller’s quotes.

“He that plants trees loves others besides himself.”

“A good garden may have some weeds.”

“We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.”

“Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.”

A lie has no legs, but a scandal has wings.”

A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time.”

“A fox should not be on the jury at a goose’s trial.”

We have all forgot more than we remember.”

“‘Tis not every question that deserves an answer.”

So, thanks to Thomas Fuller, I’ve digressed some in my summarizing but perchance have captured something of my cogitations, ruminations and tastings of our sojourn home from home. (Also referenced in past posts that recount some of our seeings and feelings, beings and doings.)

Sunday

Isaiah spoke and speaks still

To conclude, I quote from the vision of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah concerning Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isaiah 35:5-7, chapter on Joy of the redeemed: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”

I remain hopeful for the healing and prospering of individuals, faith communities, nations, nature, all creatures great and small. Why? Because I believe and feel that, despite the turmoil and distress one sees day in and day out, God’s truth is at work always.

Blessings

-John