Christ Church Huntingdon Blog

When was the last time you sang? Maybe you have young children and you take them to a music group each week? Maybe like me you’re a renowned shower singer – maybe you don’t realise you are, but ask the people you live with, they’ll notice even if you do it subconsciously! Lots of people sung for the only time in a long time during the European football championships last month, whether it was the people in the stadium, or just sitting on the sofa at home, joining in with a rendition of the national anthem, or “Football’s coming home”.  I’ve heard people say that singing is what you do when speaking doesn’t convey the emotion effectively enough. Words carry a thought, music carries an emotion, a song makes you feel a thought. And maybe when you feel something so strongly yourself, it’s not enough to just say something, you’ve got to sing it! I think that might be why football matches feature the most unlikely singers of all time bursting into song, all together. And singin...

The other day I was on a bike ride with my kids. We crossed a busy Huntingdon road at a pedestrian crossing, with the older two going ahead, but my youngest hesitated staying on the pavement with me in the middle of the road waiting while the lights went back to green. She’s only little and got a bit flustered. I tried to hold the traffic for a moment for her, but I ended up going back to her side to wait for the next chance. No one was in danger.  But on my side of the road a boy racer revved his engine and raced past me, obviously not pleased with how my 5 year old’s hesitation had eaten up a few extra seconds of his very important day. On the other side, a driver was still waiting for us well into the green light, holding up the traffic patiently to let me and my daughter cross the road.  One patient driver and one impatient driver. The impatient driver nearly ruined my day, and the kind driver nearly made my day!  It’s not easy being patient in this busy wo...

According to latest data on the BBC website , more than a million people in the UK have been asked to isolate in recent days.  It’s not surprising. We are in a strange and unnerving time where the restrictions have rapidly decreased and the Covid cases have rapidly increased. So while we give thanks for the rollout of the vaccines which has cut down the number of hospitalisations, so much of the virus is going around that many people have either got it without knowing it, or come in contact with someone who has.  Some have called it a “pingdemic”, as the track and trace app has pinged thousands of people telling them to stay at home away from work and friends due to their contact with others. Indeed it’s got so bad that some supermarkets and pubs have had to close again because so many of their staff have had to isolate. Speaking of isolation, my brother in law’s sister is due to go back to Australia in August, and on arrival she and other travellers from the UK wi...

Back in the early months of the pandemic, we were all really looking forward to freedom from restrictions, weren’t we? I remember longing for the day when I heard the announcement from the government that everything was now fine, and we could go and hug our friends again. But, although we have had restrictions lifted in such a way that there is no longer any restriction on hugging our friends and family, it’s never felt like the great cry of freedom has properly arrived. This is the way the pandemic ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper.  And 21 June came and gone without anything really changing, and now, the long-awaited freedom day, is coming on Monday. But I’m personally not feeling too great about it. Yes we’ll no longer have any limits on who we can see inside, and we’ll be allowed to all sing together in Church, but I feel like the spectre of the pandemic is going to be looming over us for a while longer. We’ll still have the laws on self-isolation if you ge...