More diary

1st February 2012

During December I celebrated at the weekday mass while our Rector was on leave.

On the 18th I was at the cathedral to present Marje Steyn with her certificate of long meritorious service in Harrismith. All the generations of the Steyn family were present and it was a truly joyful occasion.

Christmass was quiet. St Margaret’s had no Carol Service, Advent Wreath or Midnight Mass.
Fr Dintoe broke into his holiday to celebrate on Christmass Day.

I celebrated twice on New Year’s Day as well as continuing to celebrate the weekday mass until our Rector returned from leave.

Towards the end of January I audited St Peter’s, Zamdela – good to get back into the numbers game.
It was very good to see Barnard Litabo again.

The clergy retreat took place during the week of the 22nd – but I was not invited. Just as well since I had my annual heart check up in the cardio clinic at Universitas on the Wednesday. Everything still in good working order – thank God.

Lent starts on the 22nd of this month: maybe I’ll get pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

I’m trying to plan a major holiday and hope to get it organised by the end of the month.

Christmass Greetings

Christmass Letter 2011

Christmass Letter 2011

My first year of retirement is nearly over and, much to my surprise, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from moving into my little flat, it’s that we accumulate far too much “stuff” – I’d be doing perfectly well with less than half of what I have.

Bloemfontein may not be everybody’s idea of a perfect city but it’s much bigger than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. I bought an air conditioner for the hot weather – which is now, but haven’t found out how to keep warm in the cold weather – whoever invented electric blankets should be given a medal. It has every conceivable shop, a number of cinemas, a couple of theatres, a casino, airport and railway station. (Though I’ve not made use of any of these things except the shops).

I hope to use the airport sometime next year for a holiday in Europe – but must be away again and back home here before the Olympics. If anyone has any useful ideas of accommodation in London to use as a base, I’d be glad to hear. I can afford a reasonable cost.

I’ve been offered 2 full-time, stressful jobs – one back in Kimberley and the other in Lesotho, but have turned them both down. I get to take services and help out at my local church just down the road, as well as helping the Sisters in Lesotho and, with everything else, this keeps me busy enough. I seem to spend a lot of time doing housework and I hate ironing!

I was asked to go to a local retirement home to take a service and thoroughly enjoyed that – to the point that I put my name down to live there when (and if) the time comes.

My old computer died. It was old when I bought it for about R2100 – now they wanted R3000 to fix it, which obviously wasn’t worth it. I got a great deal on a new one with all the software included. It’s got even more a mind of its own than the old one but I’m gradually taming it! It behaves most of the time now. It has a built-in webcam which makes skype calls more interesting. I keep my diary and some pics on my website: vicspencer.blogspot.com if you can get on the internet. The picture at the top of this letter is courtesy of the webcam.

My tiny little Chevvy car goes extremely well, is very easy to manoeuvre and park in city traffic but has more than enough power on the open road. I couldn’t be more pleased with it.

My diabetes and heart is still under control and give me no trouble at all. But I got a bad back again – like I had in Kimberley. Lots of physiotherapy later and it’s tolerable but not perfectly OK yet. Old age is not for sissies! I’ve acquired tinnitus, which a continuous, annoying noise in the head. I took it to a doctor, an audiologist and Universitas Hospital, but they all say the same: it’s a complete mystery to medical science – they don’t know what causes it and have no way to fix it – I just have to live with it.

Old friends and parishioners from Harrismith & Ficksburg pitch up in Bloemfontein, usually when desperately sick, so I spend some time hospital visiting.

I wish you all a very blessed Christmass season and a peaceful new year in 2012. (I won’t say prosperous because I can’t see that happening given all the turmoil in the eurozone. Keep doing the football pools and buying lottery tickets and hope for the best – that’s what I do).

Love & Blessings to all..

Diary Continuted

29th November:

My poor old Dell computer died on October 6th. It was 2nd hand when I bought it for about R2200 a few years ago. They now wanted R3000 to fix it!! Which obviously made no sense. So I had to buy a new one: this Acer Travelmate, complete with all the necessary software. A bargain. I took the hard drive out of the old Dell & am using it as a backup with this Acer.

SARS sabotaged my tax return which I had completed perfectly, and sent me another one in Afrikaans. I had kept a copy of the original one which I then re-submitted and it was accepted. Amazing isn’t it? I eventually got an assessment and paid it, which resulted in the bank phoning to check whether I’d really written such a big cheque.

November had a Parish Indaba on the 12th when the Diocesan Secretary revealed that the diocese is bankrupt and that he had switched from parish pledges to the diocese to an assessment system by the diocese, which means that the diocese will be even more bankrupt very shortly.

November 13th was Remembrance Sunday and I led 2 Remembrance services at St Margaret’s.

I also said Mass for the old ladies at Bayswater Village retirement home on the 25th. This went very well & I hope I’m asked to do it again. Perhaps I’ll “retire” there some time. It’s a Methodist establishment.

I’ve spent a lot of time hospital visiting: Fr Isaac Rustoff from Intabazwe (my colleague in Harrismith) was in Rose Park for open heart surgery, which he survived, and is now recuperating. Sarel Kramer from Harrismith is in Universitas with a dreadful condition whose name escapes me. He’s in ICU and I spend a lot of time with his very distraught wife.

The Bishop was at St Margaret’s for a confirmation on Advent 1 so I went to the Cathedral for the 1st time since I’ve been in Bloemfontein. Can’t say I was very impressed – we do things so much better at St Margaret’s!!

The picture is from Zululand many years ago (me in the shorts).

Christ the King Sunday

Christ the King of All

Shortly after her Coronation, Queen Victoria attended a splendid performance of Handel’s Messiah. She’d been told in no uncertain terms that members of royalty do not stand with everybody else when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung. It was simply not proper.

But when the singers lifted their voices to shout “Hallelujah, the Lord omnipotent reigneth”, she cold only just stay in her seat. She didn’t want to violate the traditions of royalty.

And when the chorus came to the climax, proclaiming Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, repeating the phrase with increasing crescendos, the queen of all England and the British Empire rose and bowed her head before Jesus Christ, the King of all – including all earthly kings and queens.

There will come that day when every knee in heaven and earth will bow before him, “And he shall reign for ever and ever! King of Kings and Lord of Lords!”

St Francis' Day

2011 Oct 4 St Francis St Margaret’s
Yesterday was St Francis’ Day. As a Franciscan, my rule of life asks me to do various things like live a simple life and to preach one sermon per year on St Francis or the Franciscans.

Francis is one of the most popular of the great saints. People who don’t know much about other saints will have heard of St Francis of Assisi and his friendship with all of God’s creation, by reading some of the many books written about him or seeing some of the many films made of his life.

He was the son of a wealthy fabric merchant and never had to do a day’s work in his life. With his similarly rich friends, he had a great life, painting the town red: he was completely selfish.

He joined the army when war broke out and got a fever which nearly killed him. He began to think about how pointless his life was and started to pray. He had a vision where the figure of Jesus on the cross came to life and called on Francis to “Rebuild my church”. He thought this meant a little broken-down chapel in the valley nearby Assisi, and when he was well, he began to rebuild it with his own hands. To finance the work he sold off a deal of his father’s stock of cloth. His father caught him, charged him and disowned his son.

The Francis realised that God was rather calling him to devote all his youthful energy & talents to rebuild the church to what it was before it became worldly and rich. The HS truly converted him and he devoted himself to a simple life of poverty dedicated to serving the poor – both those who had nothing of the world’s good things, and those who didn’t realise their need of God. His lifestyle transformed the church.

He wrote plays and acted them out. He composed music & poetry such as “Make me an instrument of your peace” and the Canticle of the sun which has come down to us as the hymn ”All creatures of our God and King” (AMR). He invented the Christmas Carol service and Nativity Plays which we now take for granted.

Within 3 years he gained 5,000 followers of his new way of poverty, chastity and obedience, all wearing the simple brown tunic and living a Gospel life of faith and simplicity. In the process he made many enemies, especially those who were getting rich within the church. But uncountable thousands besides those who joined him, discovered the joy of putting Christ’s principles into practice in their own lives. He was truly rebuilding the church as Christ had challenged him.

The church, as well as society, always needs such a challenge. People today are longing for a living faith, to be delivered from a sick and violent society, for an escape from corruption, self-indulgence, hypocrisy and double-standards. In a way, we all long to be Franciscans. We long for our own renewal, and the renewal of church and society.

Not all of us are called to be set apart as monks and nuns like St Francis. But we can try to adapt his ideals – which are the ideals of the Gospel and our Lord Jesus Christ – to our own situations. Our whole church and society needs the Franciscan challenge and new life in the Spirit. We can all try harder in the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the church. Jesus says to us just as much as he did to St Francis “Rebuild my church”. Amen.

Diary 2nd October 2011

More diary 2nd October 2011

September began well with a visit from Marje & Piet Steyn on the 3rd and continued less well with another visit to the dentist for an extraction on the 5th.

Most of the last 2 weeks of the month were spent with the SPB Sisters at Masite in Lesotho. This gave me the chance to daily say the Mass and preach. The 19th was the Dedication Festival of their Chapel of Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy. With the co-operation of Fr Robert Stretton SSM from Maseru and the Revd Hilary Murphy from Bleomfontein, we produced an article and pictures on SPB for the Southern Anglican magazine. With much difficulty I managed to email this to the magazine in Cape Town (IT is not Lesotho’s strong point).

October 4th is St Francis’ Day which I’m transferring to Wednesday when I can celebrate and preach at St Margaret’s.

October is also Stewardship month at St Margaret’s. I get to preach and celebrate at the services on the 16th.

My back gets fractionally better day by day and the tinnitus remains much the same. Otherwise well.

We’ve had some rain but could do with lots more. Hot one day & cold the next.

The pics are of some of the Sisters at Masite.

Diary continued 15th August 2011

The end of June saw a recurrence of the back problem I’ve had on and off since Kimberley days. I’ve had 8 sessions with physiotherapists, the last in a fullsize heated swimming pool at the physio’s rooms in Westdene – a great experience and almost worth the pain! All I have to do now is find the cash to pay for it all.

I was at Universitas last Wednesday (diabetes clinic) and the doc took my back seriously enough that he sent me for a laser bone density scan and a few X-rays. I’m still waiting for the results. Meanwhile, the pain is controllable but I can’t walk far. (Diabetes is still perfectly under control).

I’ve also acquired tinnitus, which is like a head full of Christmass beetles all singing away merrily. Doesn’t really bother me much during the day (?got used to it in Harrismith rectory!) but is a problem at night in the silence of my bed. I took this to Dr Anthony Orrock, who I’d known in Ficksburg. He kindly gave me some sleeping pills and referred me to an audiologist called Geronimo (or something like that) who found my hearing to be perfectly OK. Tinnitus is apparently a total mystery to medical science and they have no idea what causes it or what to do about it. I’ve yet to receive Geronimo’s account.

Mid-July saw a kind visit by Annette and Janet Barret from Ficksburg. It was very good to see them again and get all the skinner from Ficksburg.

I was with the holy Sisters in Lesotho shortly after that and go there again tomorrow for a few days. Like most religious communities they are having to consider seriously their future up the remote mountain. I’m trying to help.

Yesterday (14th August) after church I visited Marje and Piet Steyn in their new home here in Bloemfontein. Bee & Ron Gray pitched up for a visit on their way to the Namaqualand daisies. Again, it was so very good to see old friends again, to reminisce about old times and catch up with new happenings in Harrismith. Piet very kindly gave me a bottle of splendid Harrismith wine made from his grapes in his old home there.

The picture is of Michael.

More Diary

More Diary 23rd June 2011

Went to Ficksburg for Isabel’s 80th birthday. We had a good lunch together, a couple of gin and tonics and a packet of fags. Much like old times. I also saw a bunch of other old friends at Imperani Park OAH. Isabel died 2 weeks later – no connection with my visit. Ever since I’d first met her, she’d made me promise that I would take her funeral. She had also, apparently, said this to her family, so they honoured this and invited me to take the service at Imperani Park, which I did on June 11th. Isabel had never been an Anglican and had no connection with any other church since her dominee husband died many years ago. She had no time for organised church-type religion (with which I could sympathise) and would have hated our Prayer Book service, so I did a hymn-sandwich kind of memorial with a sermon I know she enjoyed (Isabel was very much present at the service). Her 2 children gave great tributes and we all enjoyed a finger-lunch afterwards.

It took 2 hours to drive to Ficksburg via N1, Excelsior and Clocolan (though the road Excelsior to Clocolan is very badly potholed – nothing unusual in the Free State). It took 3 hours 15 mins to get back to Bloem via Ladybrand and the N8!! The many stop/goes & deviations are something to behold.

Saw the Precious Blood Sisters mid May when they were here for hospital visits and were staying at the Cathedral. Their future at Masite is questionable as they get older and more frail. We have a meeting mid-July to discuss this.

Voted just round the corner from my flat on May 18th, which was a pleasant enough experience – though made no difference to the result. Followed by a hair-do, which I always enjoy.

Car service on 23rd May was interesting. A minor fault disappeared when I got the car there so they couldn’t fix it. It recurs occasionally, but never when I’m anywhere near the garage.

On 29th May, I took both services at St Margaret’s – always a very rewarding experience.

Michael, a friend from Ficksburg, came on June 6th for nearly 3 weeks – the only person in the world to choose to spend his annual holiday in Bloemfontein!! It really was a blessing to have him here. He’s just left and I’m missing him terribly.

Trinity Sunday again gave me both services at St Margaret’s and gave me the chance to preach my favourite heresies on the Trinity.

Monday sees my next (and hopefully last) visit to the dentist. As good as my beautiful blond dentist is, it’s always a traumatic experience.

If I manage to upload the picture with this posting, it’s of the Ascension Chapel at Walsingham and shows Jesus ascending through the ceiling with just his feet still in view!.

Diary continued

3rd May More Diary …
Nothing much happened in the first part of April. Agnes is still missing, which means I spend a lot of time doing housework, washing & ironing. Shopping is almost a welcome break. With the onset of Winter, I wonder if I’m living in the right part of the world. Durban would be warmer. I bought a convection/panel heater at Game’s sale. Then had an entertaining time trying to drill holes in my wall to fix it – it won’t stand on the floor. The work wouldn’t win any prizes, but serves the purpose. I miss the anthracite burning stoves I had in Ficksburg and Harrismith.

Went to Harrismith on the 16th April for Palm Sunday, Holy Week & Easter because they have no priest since I was retired and de-licensed by the bishop. Stayed on the Leslie’s farm for Holy Week. Travelling up and down the N3 every day at holiday time is a work of art. I was looked after wonderfully well by Joan & David and their 3 dogs and 33 cats.

The church services were only a pleasure – can hardly be described as work. Mass at Eliza Liddell Home on Maundy Thursday was full house and St John’s was better attended than I remember at all services. Two baptisms at the Easter Day Ceremonies made it very special. The service was followed by blessing the new Wall of Remembrance for the interment of ashes. The wall is a work of art.

An old friend, Judith Blowers, died on Maundy Thursday. I stayed on after Easter with Bernard & his family from Australia and Dubai to take the funeral on Wednesday. Such very nice people. A power failure in the middle of my sermon momentarily put me off my stride, but all went well. It was worse for the ladies doing the catering for the Wake – coffee wasn’t as hot as it might have been, but the booze wasn’t affected. A number of people from the townships attended, which was a tribute to the work Judith & Bernard had done for them.

The extra couple of days made time to visit friends in the townships who were all most welcoming. It’s a very affirming experience to be so well-remembered.

An old friend, Isabel, turns 80 this week and I shall be going to Ficksburg to celebrate with her on Thursday. This weekend I think I’m supposed to be in Kimberley for something or other with Sister Camilla at St Augustine’s. Must check on this. Sr Camilla was at Masite when I was there last & she invited me, but the details have become vague.

April 6th .. Diary Continued

Bloemfontein Diary Cont….
Preached at St Margaret’s for first time on Lent 1 – really enjoyed that. Have continued to assist at Wednesday Mass (as Lay Minister).

After more how’s-your-father with Spar, my new coffee filter was couriered to my flat on the 23rd. Took a lot of time & effort, but worth it in the end..

Someone told me it was a public holiday on the 21st – I never noticed. Isn’t retirement great?

I was in Kimberley on April Fools’ Day & had a nice plate of prawns with the Bishop, Ossie Swartz.
I came away thinking I had arranged a solution to their problem which wouldn’t involve me but a call from the Bishop yesterday proved me wrong. He still wants me there.

Haven’t seen my maid, Agnes for some time: her husband died and then she found herself admitted to hospital. I hope she’s going to be OK. She’s such a nice woman who doesn’t deserve all this tsouris.

I spend some time doing housework, which I don’t mind. However, ironing isn’t one of my talents – takes me a whole morning to do what Agnes would do in an hour or so.

Will be at St John’s Harrismith from Palm Sunday to Easter doing the Holy Week thing & a couple of baptisms. It will be good to see everyone again and I feel very complimented to get the invitation. Now that the World Cup cricket is over, I have time to prepare.

A friend in CT, Daphne (a cricket fan like me), SMSed each other during the games and got all our result forecasts wrong except for the final: Daphne got that right while I continued my losing streak.

Diary continued

Diary continued … (by popular request)

I have acquired a maid. Agnes. She comes for a Saturday morning twice a month. Mainly to do ironing. (I do the washing). She cleans the flat in the time remaining. Marvellous!!

February was fairly quiet. Mass on Sundays & Wednesdays; bible study on Wednesdays. Ongoing fights with Standard Bank: they’ve stolen R7-29 from my account and some woman on the phone said that “terms & conditions” allow them to do this. Notwithstanding all the times & hours I’ve spent in Preller Square branch, I’m still not FICA compliant. Going there again tomorrow – eventually they’ll learn.

Similar fight with Spar. I bought a coffee filter machine in Harrismith which died just before the guarantee expired – bad planning on their part. Local Spars (lots of them in Bloem) are not interested. For last 3 weeks have been in contact with Spar’s Customer Service in Durban. They express interest but have not achieved anything (yet). Spoke to them again today. By the time I’ve won (and I will) I’ll have spent more on phone calls than the thing is worth. Meantime, an antique filter I bought at Cash Crusaders about 10 years ago is working perfectly – which is just as well – can’t do without decent coffee.

From 20th Feb I spent a week at Masite in Lesotho with the holy sisters. I did their accounts for 2010 and nearly balanced them. Said Mass & preached every day. Spent a good deal of time on their stoep watching the mountains, reading catholic magazines and being bitten by mosquitoes. Must do it again sooner rather than later. They’re very much easier to reach from Bloem than from Harrismith.

March started well: a friend from Vrede (Titose) pitched last Friday. Will assist at St Margaret’s on Ash Wednesday. Had a “haircut” at Maison Costa: shampoo, conditioning, scalp massage, cut & dry, another rinse to get rid of loose hairs. The massage was a delight & took about 15 minutes. And all for R85 – well worth it!!

I won the English football pools: a whole 3 pounds 40 pence!! Don’t know what to do with the cheque. Standard Bank would charge much more than it’s worth. Also won the SA Lotto: about R30. Might buy a packet of fags.