It is a day of cloud and heavy rain, and a filthy journey on the way round Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Satffordshire. Richard and I arrive and prepare. We have heard that Bethan is detained at her school and can’t join us. We have slides of her work with children, so an image and reportage will have to stand in for her testimony.
We sit towards the rear of the Nave during sung Evensong. The sound of the invisible choir echoes, whilst the spoken word through the amplification system seems curiously further away. Chris Gray, the operations manager at the Cathedral, explains that the screen and chairs are grouped around the display cases, but there is no artificial light in that location. One desklight, the projection and the internal lighting of the cases creates an intimate space within the vast darkness of the Cathedral for the small group of volunteers and staff who gather around us.
I am delighted by the level of understanding the talk seems to generate. Either people are being very polite, or the idea does communicate in an immediate way. Perhaps both.
The next day I am at the ‘engage’ annual conference, in Birmingham. People who weren’t at the talk the night before ask me how it went. One describes the project to a colleague. I am struck by Mike Clark’s comment when we installed in Llandeilo: we three are like pilgrims, in as much as what we have to say to people as we go along is as much to do with the stories that develop on the journey as with the ideas having an ending.
A week later we head to Llandeilo. Mike Clark has suggested I join the parish’s “men’s prayer breakfast”, and I enjoy the way everyone shares, talk, seem to become a community within a community. As they clear away and leave, Richard and Beth arrive from Cardiff. They set up their kit, and a couple people drop in. Mike explains about the new inclusion in the exhibits, a piece of work by a local artist who felt it would fit.
We have a really interesting afternoon, with fewer people than the evening in Lichfield, but this means we can introduce ourselves and talk discursively, conversationally, around the table.
Richard has put up his ‘teilo’ face on his wordpress site, and we have a go at doing it for real and discuss angles of cuts for reeds, density of ink and the need for a turned down stroke. See it here: richardhiglett.wordpress.com
Mike Clark also seems to have a bottomless box of biscuits. A family call in, and obviously think we are a church activity group, with teapots, mugs and plates in amongst drawing paper, laptops, a projector, pens to try calligraphy, a couple of books. Perhaps we are. I explain to another couple how to find their relative’s grave.
The following day I return to Llandeilo to collect the exhibits. It is the end of the annual ‘civic’ service. For the first time I see the church completely full of people and with lights blazing.
A further week has passed. Chris Gray, the operations manager at Lichfield Cathedral, hands over Richard’s Carmarthenshire horse, and I offer him a cup of tea in exchange. We discuss ways of keeping any future narrative and ideas alive through social networking, blogs and the like. I agree that this will begin with some sort of link to the Lichfield facebook page from this blog, and that the next post will come from Derry. Just at this moment, sitting in a quiet Midlands evening, it’s hard to imagine that this will be next weekend.