A typical Sunday lunch with a retired clergy couple - not!

I thought I was going to a traditional Sunday lunch with a retired priest and his wife. Fr Horace McBride and Lorraine retired from full-time ministry in Christ the King Diocese (part of the city of Jo’burg but not Jo’burg Diocese) to Stilfontein some five years ago. I found what I thought was their home only to see a rank of motorbikes lined up outside. So I decided to go ask for directions, only to hear, “Lorraine, Nita’s arrived”! I had walked into the annual Blessing of the Bikes.

When younger and fitter, Horace had been a biker himself, and he is now Chaplain to the bikers of Gauteng (the area around Jo-burg) Province. For the last three years they have come to Stilfontein near the start of the year and Horace and Lorraine have opened their house to them. Each biker pays R100 towards the cost. Their ladies go free. Today there must have been about 20 of them, but altogether there are around 100. After a good braai, alcohol and tobacco were left in the eating area and we all trouped out for the Blessing of the Bikes and Bikers. One was given an extra blessing, that he might “return next year to cook the braai”!

At 4.45, with everything packed away and the area cleared up, it was time to ‘Saddle up’. There was a lot of revving of engines so that local residents could come out to see the bikes leave, and a little bit of a show for them. All too soon, they had gone – but not before I was given an invitation to next year’s event, and told they would expect me to be riding a ‘Harley’.

It was a noisy affair, with volume levels rising as the alcohol levels in the bottle fell. But everyone was very welcoming, very polite and very friendly.

So yes, your typical Sunday lunch with a retired clergy couple  -  not!

Now it’s full steam ahead for the ordination. The Diocesan Chapter decided to ordain all the candidates, so there are now 12 to be priested. It all seems very last minute to me: O for some organisation – or would that just be too English!