Dear Friends

It will not surprise you to know that I loved my visit to Chicago. It was great to stay with Rev’d Jackie, to see her and worship in her church. There is some history to the city, all of course from the 19th Century. There was a great fire, and following the fire the opportunity to rebuild, but unlike London where the medieval street system was retained, the good people of Chicago decided to modernise the city, which was an inspired decision. Apparently some of its older skyscrapers were used in the Batman films – certainly some of the city’s buildings do look quite Gotham City like, especially the old Chicago Tribune building which is now being converted into apartments – see the photo – now I would love to live there! There is another aspect of the city which is Gotham like and that is its streets. When you walk along many of Chicago’s main avenues you get the impression that you are walking at ground level, but in fact you are not and there is a complete, other subterranean city beneath your feet. It’s darker, a bit more edgy and certainly not a place you would want to be visiting at night. Often in life we can be blinded by the charade of the bright and exciting, only to miss the dark underbelly, the real terra firma. Chicago taught me to look with more inquisitive eyes, to be prepared to look beyond the obvious. 

Simon

Incidentally, we really could do with more volunteers to help with serving at the 10.30am Parish Mass. If you would like to be involved in this important ministry, please talk to me. You will be well trained and there is a great group of dedicated servers who will support you.