Dear Friends

I’m always looking to try something new, or in this case trying again something my mother attempted to teach me years ago. I’ve decided to take up knitting! Let’s say I’m on something of a journey. I visited my knitting guru Margo (!) last week for a casting on class, followed by a simple knitting stitch lesson. Taking my work home I discovered that I seemed to be doing more casting on than actual knitting. So instead of my work getting longer, it rather incomprehensibly got wider! Cue You Tube, because I had forgotten Margo’s wise words about casting on, a very patient American lady told me all I needed to know, well she did after I had watched the clip for what felt like one hundred times. So casting on is sorted, and I seem to have mastered the art of knitting for length rather than width, the only problem now is my tension – too tight and the fact that years ago I had better eyesight, my close vision is not what it used to be. So the moral to this story. It’s good to start a hobby, it’s better if you have the patience to see it through and if you are having difficulty focusing on your work, go to the knitting shop on Turnham Green Terrace and buy bigger knitting needles!

I fear Ian’s surprise hand knitted scarf, might not be ready for this Christmas, so let’s go for Christmas 2018!

If at first you don’t succeed…etc!

Simon

Dear Friends

I came back from Germany last Friday somewhat ‘Luthered out’ but much more knowledgeable about him and events surrounding October 31st 1517 from a German perspective. It was said that if Martin Luther had not taken the initiative in challenging the practices of the Church at that time then someone else would have done so, albeit with a different approach: ‘It was not about 95 theses nailed on a door, but about a man nailed on a cross’.

Thursday of last week, November 9th, was the anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of the broken glass) in 1938 and we paused for a few moments of prayer and reflection. We visited the site of the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, where Martin Luther lived as a monk. Our British guide explained that some of the original site was destroyed in 1945. In a British air raid 267 civilians ran for shelter in the crypt but were sadly all killed by a stray bomb. I remembered them too as our wreaths were laid on Sunday.

With every blessing

Mother Eileen