I seem to have ended up as "official photographer" for this BCF (East Midlands) Easter Cruise; this afternoon I took a group photo of participants and their boats. (I really must get a better camera; on my usual manual setting it was grossly overexposing so I selected "landscapes" mode fixing the focus (theoretically) at infinity. Still a little overexposed here, but not too bad.)
We had all arrived at Polesworth for the culmination of the Easter cruise; a service of light this evening and the Easter Day celebration tomorrow morning, both events taking place at Polesworth Abbey church.
Neither Jan nor I can remember being at service quite like this evening's. First, the vicar got us all outside where he blessed a fire. We all had candles which were supposed to have been lit before we processed into the church but, unfortunately, that bit got left out.
There was a bit of chanting where the vicar would sing something and we would have to sing the response imitating his chant. It was slightly chaotic, but it sort of worked. There were readings and hymns (strangely, mostly sung seated) and then we got to light our candles.
For the Gospel reading we gathered round the Easter Chest at the back.
Vicar: "What shall I do, open the box or take the money?"
Congregation (mostly): "Open the box!"
In the chest were some pieces of artwork the children had made, joined up to make a banner; and some ... can you guess? Yes, Easter eggs! The one youngster in the congregation got one.
After the service there was quite a wine-and-cheese feast laid on in the refectory.
It felt a little odd to be celebrating Easter a day early but, as the vicar said, this was an anticipation of the resurrection. The big day is tomorrow.
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