Open for business

I think I've said this already this snowy winter, but it bears saying again: Never, in all the 44 years I've been worshipping in Holy Trinity, Dunoon, have we had an incumbent who put so much effort into making it possible for people to get up the hill to church. The car park in the foreground of this photo was covered in snow two days ago; the steep drive impassable the day before. Mr Dean and Mrs Dean did the drive themselves; yesterday they called in a few hardy souls to help with the rest of the job and here we are.

Two of the congregation lent me some middle-ground interest for this blip; Yaro, in the red jacket, is a frequent visitor from Burkino Faso, and despite the annual shock of our weather seems perfectly happy in the snow. We had a congregation of about 25 today, despite the fact that many of us had to dig our cars out to get here, and the usual diverse age range in a time when "the elderly" are supposed to huddle over their fires and "yoof" avoid anything so uncool as church.

And tomorrow I shall be off to Oban, whose snow-free state means there was probably never any doubt that Diocesan Synod would happen. Clearly the sun shines on the righteous of Oban ...