On a recent visit to Winchester we saw a stain glass window in a chapel showing St Ethelwold. Ethelwold was Abbot at Abingdon Abbey before becoming Bishop at Winchester in 963.

There was also an image of Ethelwold on the large Cathedral Screen.

He would have been Bishop before the current Cathedral was built and so we could not find his tomb. Even if St Ethelwold was buried at Winchester his bones would not be easy to find. During the time of King Henry VIII all the bones and relics from saints and others had been dug up and dumped in a pit.

The large stain glass windows at Winchester Cathedral were deliberately smashed by Cromwell’s forces, some time later, during the Civil War. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the broken glass was gathered up and assembled randomly, and now looks like a modern art window. A guide told us that historians are still trying to identify some of the old bones using DNA.

Last night there was a thunderstorm. Rain was falling heavily and thunder rumbling around.

At the end of April a similar storm caused damage to the roof at Trinity Church – just where the lightening rod comes down.

The damage has been repaired to keep the elements out.

Last Sunday (Pentecost or Whit Sunday) the visiting preacher was head of the Methodist Northampton District( a large area stretching from Oxford to Peterborough with Northampton near the centre). Trinity is both Methodist and URC, and is also part of the Wessex URC district stretching through much of the South West. So one way and another has much of the country covered.

Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday and Reverend Richard Bittleston, who leaves Trinity in August, will be preaching on ‘The Minimalist Christian’. And next Saturday, June 21st 2014, will be the Trinity Summer Fair. Stalls to include: Cakes and preserves, Tombola, Raffle, Jewellery, Toiletries, Plants, Tea/Coffee and light refreshments, Children’s activities,and Ice cream with a smile.

On Palm Sunday there was the first concert by the Abingdon Gospel Choir – founded just a few months ago. They were joined by some members of the Oxford Gospel Choir and sang spiritual songs in aid of helping a team from Nicaragua go to the Street Child World Cup in Brazil.

Then on Good Friday there was a procession from the Charter to a service inside St Nicolas Church.

A few years ago you might have seen lots of people standing with crosses on the Market Place in Abingdon on Good Friday, but times have changed and this year Revd. Richard Bittleston’s was to be seen without a flock, carrying a solitary cross.