Wet, and marvellous, and home

I was back in familiar haunts today, in the familiar weather of torrential rain - at least, that's what we were in when I took this photo, of leaves which have looked pretty ordinary all summer but which appeared fairly marvellous this afternoon. Back this morning in our little church, I had much the same reaction ...

I've been in some magnificent churches in the past month, from the icon-covered splendour of the Church on the Spilled Blood in St Petersburg to the more austere grandeur of the Lutheran cathedral in Copenhagen, to the red sandstone magnificence of St Bride's last evening. And today I was home, in Holy Trinity Dunoon, for the first time in a month - and realising how much of a home it has become.

And the lectionary hit the spot too, in these turbulent times. I'll just leave you with a quotation or two, and an extra photo of our church at the end of the service:
"Hear this, you that trample on the needy, 
and bring to ruin the poor of the land...
...
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds"
(Amos 8.4-7)


Nothing, clearly, changes ...