Quiet day at the church

So what else is new, you might ask. Normally I wouldn't even bother mentioning church - you'll all assume I was there and did something if possible, and what's so special about that?

Only just now the Muslim world is all in a flap about some really stupid cartoons published in Denmark several months back. It looks like it's a convenient issue to distract people in countries like Egypt, where otherwise the government might have some hard questions to answer about sinking ferries and elections and things, and Syria, where they're always looking for something to distract the populace.

And the fuss is spreading. There was a Roman Catholic priest murdered in Trabzon, on the Black Sea, a week ago. It might have been over the cartoons (the kid who's said to have done it shouted "God is great" before shooting), or it might have been arranged by the local Mafia under the cover of the cartoon flap - the priest in question was working with Russian and Georgian women enslaved by the Mafia.

And we had a small incident involving a Roman Catholic priest in this area.

So we were a little nervous. St. John's is the only church in the area not enclosed by a wall. We're right out in the open, on a busy corner. Everyone knows where it is. And it's next door to the British consulate, so if someone has an issue with England we have in the past been targetted. The armed guards looking after the consulate are supposed to keep an eye on us, too, but they're very fond of their tea and chatting with the drivers at the taxi stand next door.

But we worshipped as usual, and our doors were open to everyone. We even had a couple of young Turkish men we didn't know. They were received hospitably, as usual, shown around and given an explanation of the service. They sat quietly and watched carefully. I celebrated and Fr. Ron preached. And it was very quiet and very good.

So if you'd had any worries about us, put them to rest for this week at least. Everything's fine. One of the nice things about our neighbourhood, too, is that everyone knows us and watches out for us. If we'd chosen to live in the usual tourist areas I think we might even have been in a bit of danger, but here they know we're harmless and just want to live peacefully.

Of course, so do 99.999% of the rest of the human race.