Sunday, 6 December 2009

Away in a Manger

Despite my recent Puritan expressions regarding the season, it could be that this year I celebrate a really authentic Christmas. While it is not my habit to display solicitor's letters on the Internet this paragraph was in a letter received on 4 December:

We understand that you are in occupation of 13 Manchester Square New Holland but are prepared to give vacant possession when required by the estate. Please let us know what period of notice you will require to enable you to arrange alternative accommodation.

My response includes asking from where this understanding has come and that I have not given consideration to the matter.

The funeral hasn't even taken place yet. So Season's Greetings to one and all, particularly to lawyers and their sense of timing, and it could be that I might be spending mine in a manger or shed somewhere... Or not.

Oh, and the Unitarian service this morning included donations of gifts around a tree that go to some elderly residents that are related in their housing to the church and its historical connections. The theme was ministry and was put partly in the Christmas context (with a view of Advent as a more sober preparation). A good service, well presented, and a chance for me afterwards to look at the new 2009 hymn book (and we sang an actually written in 2009 hymn). Fortunately the theme did not lead to a statement using those hackneyed words that 'Christmas is a time for families', otherwise I might have choked (and there is nothing in my estate). A good reading came from Jonathan Sacks, that a crisis is also a birth: a time we've had when we knew the price of everything and the value of nothing might be corrected thanks to the crisis. I wonder.

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