The Cathedral AGM is on Sunday 20 November. So in October we will be revising and checking the Cathedral Roll.

Communicant members over 18 are entitled to vote and to stand for election at the AGM. Elections will be held for vacancies on the Vestry as people complete their 3-year terms, and for the Lay Representative and Alternate Lay Representative who are also Vestry members but are elected annually. 

Think about standing for the Vestry. The Vestry meets about 10 times a year, usually on the third Tuesday evening of the month. Meetings are hybrid so members can attend by Zoom or in-person. The Vestry helps set a direction for the Cathedral and it monitors our activities and our use of resources. Being on the Vestry is a governance role, so you need to be willing to ask questions and put forward ideas. You also need to be eligible to be a charity trustee. Vestry meetings are interesting and short*, with a range of people involved in Cathedral activities reporting on their work. If you think you could be part of that, talk to the Provost. 
*reasonably short. Getting shorter.

Normally the Cathedral opens for a couple of hours on Saturdays, from 2.00 to 4.00 pm. Staffing it just means being available in the building, to keep an eye on things and in case visitors have questions. 
There are now good resources for visitors, including a walk-round guide, and we had 175 people coming through the doors on Doors Open Day. We're the only church that's regularly open for visitors in the city centre. It would be very good if we were able to be open regularly on Saturdays and usually we can, thanks to a small team of volunteers. But we do need more volunteers. Could you help? Contact Bob at treasurer@saintpaulscathedral.net

Do not be misled by the ducks. This is a sheepwash, for sheep. It works on much the same principle as a drive-in carwash. You line up your sheep beside the river, remove the plank and encourage the sheep into the river. The indignant sheep make for the nearest dry ground and find themselves in the sheepfold on the other side. Job done.

In the first reading on Sunday we have Naaman the Syrian. He is a mighty warrior and commander of the army, but he has leprosy. He hears from a servant about the powers of Elisha the prophet, so he sets out from home and turns up with his chariots and horses outside Elisha's house. Elisha sends out a messenger telling Naaman to go and wash in the river Jordan. Naaman, as indignant as a sheep in a sheepwash, says there are perfectly good rivers in Syria he could have washed in. He was expecting something much more impressive from the prophet. ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!' But his servant - servants are important in this story - says that if the prophet had asked him to do something difficult, he would have done it. Why not try just having a wash in the river? 

Well, why not? The Gospel story is about healing too, and there again the focus is not so much on the healing as on the way the people being healed react. What are they expecting? What are they hoping for? What will happen afterwards? Where will they go? Sheep, if you put them in a river, go straight ahead to the other side and get out again. But the people in these stories change direction. 

The river is the Derwent in Derbyshire, and the sheepwash is in Ashford-in-the-Water.

EJT