Sunday Morning Surprise!

This morning we went to the morning service at the parish church in Cromer.
We had no idea where to park, so I googled 'parking for Cromer church'.
A link came up advising me that there was some street parking
and gave the name of the nearest municiple car park.
There may have been street parking normally,
but it was the weekend with the best weather so far this year
so the town was buzzing.
There was also some big cycle race in Norfolk on Sunday morning
which further limited the available street parking.
After finding ourselves in a dead end once more,
but this time adjacent to the cliff edge, rather than contained within a farm yard...
We then drove around the local streets several times
in ever increasing circles
before we admitted defeat and used the recommended car park.




The church was also buzzing.
Sun streamed through the plain glass windows.
I expected the church to be half empty
but we found ourselves sat in the side aisle.
If I was carrying out a mystery worshipper
I would have said that there was a good atmosphere of expectation before the service.
The music was led by a worship band,
who did there very best
despite some very challenging acoustics -
high celings and stone walls are not the best elements
for creating a good sound.

The service was led by a young clergyman
(I must be getting old when the clergy look young...).
The churchwarden began the service by announcing his appointment to lead the church for the next three years.
I understood he had been doing so on an informal basis.
The news was met with spontaneous applause from the congregation,
who were obviously delighted by this outcome.

I examined the leaflet we had picked up as we entered.
The speaker was listed as Roger Billings.
I remembered a Roger Billings from nearly 50 years ago,
but he was now a Rev and last I heard was living in Oxfordshire.
When he stood up to speak I recognised him straight away.
"I recognise him!" I said to DH.
"Well he does look familiar.." replied DH.
"He was one of the original leaders of Crusaders when I was ten! They moved away a year or so later."
After the service I greeted him
"Crusaders, Redditch 1971!"
A look of delight crossed his face.
We chatted for a while
and he asked after various people from that era.


Back then Roger and his wife Margaret were a young married couple,
who helped launch a Crusader group, in an attempt to stop those in the 10-18 age bracket drifting away from church.
I remembered his wife as having long dark hair and wearing a long purple cloak.
It was at a games evening at their house that I first discoverd the game "Tell Me" 
which required very little skill
other than thinking of something beginning with a certain letter of the Alphabet
on a nominated topic.

It was purely by chance that we ended up in Cromer,
and went to that particular church on a day when Roger was preaching.
If he had not been preaching I would never have known that he was in the congregation!
That was my Sunday morning surprise!