If I had all the time in the world

Statue of Reginald Somerset Ward at Guildford Cathedral

If I had all the time in the world -- or, more aptly, if I had exactly as much time as I in fact have, but made better use of it -- I would start a couple of podcasts.   

One would be Noonday Prayer for each of the days of Lent (thus, not Sundays). It would be the full BCP service with a spoken meditation -- some poetry or poetic prose -- at the appropriate place. Ten minutes, tops, for people to use as a devotional during the day.

Lent will be here very soon, but I may actually manage that one. I'll know more within a week or so. Watch this space (and the Cathedral website, and possibly the diocesan newsletter . . .).

I've been wanting to do the Noonday Prayer podcast for a couple of years now. The other idea came to me when I was last in Scotland. I encountered the spiritual writings of Reginald Somerset Ward. I think they could be spiritually invigorating for a lot of people, and I'd like to make him available more broadly, and in a form that people can easily use: hence the thought of a podcast.

I started writing my first episode when I was on the train from Edinburgh to Oban on November 12, and I've spent what time I could polishing it and then recording it. Getting the right microphone, figuring out how to use it, recording and re-recording, getting frustrated over the fact that I sound like I'm speaking from the bottom of a barrel or the middle of wind tunnel . . . that has all taken quite a while. Whether there will be further episodes is still very much an open question, but now that I have a first episode that doesn't sound hopelessly amateurish, I'm sharing it here. I'm hoping that posting an episode that really makes sense only as an introduction to further episodes will prompt me to keep going.

Podcast: The Way. Episode 1

Ward famously warned people against "the sin of overwork." Just putting that out there.