Clerics

Daily Mail

One thing I have learned is that the Church of England is not like any other church I have belonged to.  The Church of Scotland has some weirdo's in it today, some who ought not be allowed through the door it must be said, yet for all its troubled history the CoS has not produced eccentrics with the ease the CoE has done.  
This book lists some of them.
The author is a curate in the CoE and therefore comes across some eccentrics daily I would imagine, in my short time here in the Essex wilderness I have discovered the CoE encourages such people.
The book offers a collection of clerics from recent and distant past times, some appear to me to be quite good chaps in truth doing the job they were paid for, perhaps that is why they were considered strange?
However the first one mentioned 'Robert Hawker' can only be classed as 'strange.'  While engaged in his clerical duties at Bude in Cornwall he took to the sea.  He would sit on a rock just of the coast wearing a wig maid of seaweed and with an oilskin wrapped around his legs he would sing as mermaids do.  This curate action confused some of the locals though they gathered around to watch and listen until a local farmer, or perhaps the weather brought him ashore and quietened him down.  Having moved far from Bude to a lonely parish he became famous for there he invented the Harvest Festival in a vain effort to get his parishioners into church.  The majority of the congregation however remained his 10 cats who followed him in each Sunday.  One caught a mouse on a Sunday and was excommunicated for this.   In spite of dressing in a peculiar but coloufull fashion he considered it his duty to rescue bodies which were constantly washed up on shore from the treacherous waters around him.  He also tried to rebuild the vicarage in his own quaint style but his behaviour and his addiction to opium along with the bizarre poems this inspired stopped him from obtaining money to rebuild his church.  He died in 1875.
Michael Ramsey became Archbishop of Canterbury and was known to begin the day by bangng his head three times on his desk muttering "I hate the Church of England," I suspect all those who followed him have also followed this practice.  George Harvest suffered from memory loss, he forgot to arrive at his wedding as he had gone fishing, not only but also he made a second wedding arrangement and got caught up in conversation with a stranger and missed that one as well!    
There are many such in this book, including one who built a fence round the church to keep people out and I suspect some vicars who having read that will wish to do similar.  
An entertaining read which only the CoE could produce. 

No idea what this is but the bush in the park over the road gives off a delightful scent.  The wind is carrying it eastwards today but when the wind is low the fragrance fills the area.  We need more of these.
 

No football tonight.
After tomorrow there may not be much for a while.
What will I do...?
I might have to speak to people if I cannot avoid them.
Oh dear...