This morning was a special festival service at the local parish church. The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby presided over the service and gave the sermon. The boys from the King's College Cambridge choir, conducted by Stephen Cleobury, sang during the service. The setting was Benjamin Britten's Missa Brevis and they sang music by Schubert and Peter Hurford during the communion.
The service was being broadcast live on BBC radio so there were microphones around the church. There was also a video fees to lots of other people who were in rhe church hall or outside in the church grounds (because the church only sat 500 people and lots more wanted to come. When the Archbishop got up in the pulpit to give the sermon, you could hear the sounds of buzzing every now and then with the microphones, which usually happens with mobile phones etc interfering with the microphones. He started out by jovially saying there was probably a mobile phone on in the congregation, causing the interference (and proudly stating that it wasn't his). He recounted a funny story of a wedding he took one day and there happened to be a couple of politicians in the congregation at the wedding. He gave the usual spiel about where you can throw confetti and suggested that if people had a mobile phone, they might like to turn it off. One of the politicians gave him a look, as if to say that he doesn't need to be reminded of such things. Moments later, a mobile phone rang, and it turned out to be this particular politician's phone. So much for his smugness when the Archbishop suggested that people turn their mobiles off!
Anyway, the buzzing continued now and then throughout the sermon. I noticed a couple of minutes into the sermon that the Archbishop wasn't turning over sheets of paper as he read his sermon, but that he was swiping to turn pages, probably on a iPad or another type of tablet. As soon as he left the pulpit the buzzing stopped! After the service, we introduced ourselves to him, and I was so tempted to point out to him that he was causing the buzzing with his iPad or tablet!
Whilst exiting the church we spoke to one of the wardens and recounted the dramas of yesterday , when the organ stopped working and they had to get he organ builder out in a hurry, to fix it ready for this morning. Prior to this, they had just spent 14,000 pounds in servicing costs and the work had apparently not been finished. The service would have been a bit of a fizzer without the organ!
We enjoyed the service and the Archbishop turned out to be very friendly and humorous and not at all what we had been expecting.
Accessing the internet here is a little problematic. We have an internet dongle that we purchased in Ipswich from the one and only provider that provides internet capability in Aldeburgh. We use it in the apartment but it is painfully slow because reception is pretty poor around here. There are about half a dozen wifi hotspots in the main street, so we are in a hotspot in a cafe at the moment, using the iPhone which is a darn side quicker. Unfortunately this means I can't upload any photos that I have taken on the camera. When i have more time, I have a try to upload a photo or two, using the dongle.
Tonight we are off to hear Peter Grimes at the Snape Maltings concert hall.
