An alternative reality???

Somehow or other I have agreed to play the part of Feste in a local amateur dramatic performance of Twelfth Night. Feste is the the Fool. It's typical Shakespearean comedy with women dressed as men & all kinds of subertuges.
Feste, the Fool - though arguably the only character with any real sense - at one point impersonates a vicar. So this production will feature a vicar impersonating a fool impersonating a vicar.
One of the subtle bits of the script is that it has the fool saying "nothing that is so is so!" and when impersonating the vicar saying"that that is so is so...."
Is Shakespeare suggesting that reality is not what it seems, that there is an alternative, but that the church is too blind to see?????

On a more prosaic note, the performance is in Martley Village hall on the afternoon and repeated in the evening of 26th September - tickets £5 for an unforgettable experience!

On yer bike

12th September sees the Historic Churches Cycle ride and I shall be seeing how many churches I can visit by bike.
If anyone wants to encourage me, then you can sponsor me. Proceeds are shared between the local church (Lower Teme Valley) and the Historic Churches Trust.
And I should loose several pounds (of weight!!)

Can you help?

How are the psalms used today in rural churches' worship? There is a letter here explain how this question is being researched and a questionnaire here

Stress and Loss

“I feel there is a constant dark cloud of uncertainty over me, causing stress, anxiety and fear. I feel weary, mentally and physically which results in pain in my body"

Farm Crisis Network have just published "Stress and Loss" - a report on research into the human and emotional cost of bovine TB. It's is available from the FCN website
This disease, which is endemic in this area, brings with it an enormous human cost along with the financial cost to both farmers and taxpayers.
Bovine TB is a disease in cattle and wildlife. There are stringent controls in cattle. Nothing is currently happening to tackle the disease in wildlife - it's endemic in badgers in this area. Government hopes are pinned on the hope of developing a vaccine. There is currently nothing available for cattle but the hope is for an injectable badger vaccine next year (though how it will be injected poses problems).
Cattle suspected of having TB are killed.
“The worst thing was that cows very close to calving had to be shot on farm. We could see the calves kicking inside as they died."

Surely not again

For the third year in a row rain is threatening to disrupt harvest. Talking to a farmer at Saturday's rather wet (though still excellent) Tenbury Show he told me that he had n't had three consecutive dry days in the whole of last month. The crops are standing ready for harvest and the quality is going down with each day that passes. Last year he had to abandon crops because he could gather them. It was the same the year before that.

Add to the equation that cereal prices have weakened and the cost of diesel, fertiliser and other essentials have gone up and it's a gloomy picture.

The old Book of Common Prayer from 1662 has a prayer for fine weather. It goes,
For Fair Weather. ALMIGHTY Lord God, who for the sin of man didst once drown all the world, except eight persons, and afterward of thy great mercy didst promise never to destroy it so again; We humbly beseech thee, that although we for our iniquities have worthily deserved a plague of rain and waters, yet upon our true repentance thou wilt send us such weather, as that we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season; and learn both by thy punishment to amend our lives, and for thy clemency to give thee praise and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I wonder if it might help.