Tomorrow will be my first preach for six weeks.

Tomorrow will be my first preach with my new congregation.

Tomorrow will be the first time in three and a half years since I preached without using Zoom (so my first non-streamed service in that time).

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Tomorrow I will be welcomed into Covenanted Membership

Tomorrow I will preside at Communion

Tomorrow I will do what I have been doing for half my adult life

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Tomorrow I will preach in the sanctuary of a church I serve for the first time since 2004!

Tomorrow I will preach in the building of a church I serve for the first time since 2016!

Tomorrow I will preach from a lectern on a platform, and thankfully not from a pulpit...

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Tomorrow I will preach... 

New home, new to me oven... new church, new relationships to build... so cake had to be made.

It was a challenge - the oven is extremely fierce  and the new non-stick cakes tins weren't.  But after I had cut off the charcoal, sandwiched it with srawberry jam, smothered it in cream and topped with strawberries, the cake looked okay.

As it turned out, it tasted better than okay, and today's visitors ate half of it, along with some Tunnock's wafers and some fruit cake.

Hospitality isn't about perfect baking, it's about opening homes and hearts  - certainly this is just as well when using a 'new' oven!  It went well, even if relatively small numbers came to visit... I need to ponder some of that... but it was good to open my new home to new people, and to let them eat cake!