This pic was taken in South Africa in 2015 before our move to the Norwich in the UK.
John Wesley had a great deal to say about his ministry in both Norwich and Ireland, not always complimentary towards the folk he ministered to. In this entry from his journal for Saturday, February 17, 1781, he manages to insult both the folk of Norwich and of Ireland in one breath:
After spending Thursday and Friday with the affectionate people at Lowestoft, on Saturday I returned to Norwich. Here I found about fifty missing out of the two hundred and sixteen whom I left in the society a year ago. Such fickleness I have not found anywhere else in the kingdom; no, not even in Ireland.
Sun. 18. The Chapel was full enough, both in the afternoon and the evening. I declared to them the whole counsel of God, and on Monday returned to London.
I grew up in a home where every March 17th, St Patrick's Day, I woke up to hear my Dad singing "For they're hanging men and women for the wearing of the green" and "With me shillelagh under me arm, And a twinkle in me eye, I'll be off to Tipperary in the morning."
So, on this St Patrick's Day and in remembrance of my Dad, Patrick, I donned some green, including his green tie with the Irish national emblem, my tweeds and shillelagh (that's the stick, from Hawthorne House, Dublin) and prayed some good St Paddy's Day prayers. The first is from the Book of Common Prayer for today and the second is Patrick's Breastplate prayer. I first came across the Breastplate prayer in 1999.