This was what happened on 27th April, in the words of one of our members who e-mailed afterwards: "That was the most amazing meeting!   The excitement and enthusiasm were incredible ."

It was the Annual Meeting we held after our joint Chaplaincy Service (Venice and Padova together), and indeed, it was richly blessed, but I couldn't really have put 'Annual Meeting' as the title of this, or you wouldn't have bothered to open it!

Looking back over what we have been able to do, under God's guidance, over the last 12 months, and looking ahead to what we believe He's asking us to do this year, was exciting. Lots of people volunteered to work as Church Officers during the coming year, some of them (including the writer above) for the first time. We prayed, in the Prayer Book words, "that we may do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in."

But that wasn't all. We had, as forecast in my last blog, a really interesting St. George's Day (23rd April), with our visit to the Church of Santo Spirito to see the original of our Altar Painting. Buonconsiglio's original fully lived up to our hopes, being much more lively and inspiring than our copy. Such a shame that it's seldom seen in that church which has had to be closed. Ten people came on  the visit and there were also 9 dragon-hunters to celebrate the festival.

Then on 25th April we had a lovely and memorable Wedding Blessing in Christchurch, Trieste, the first there that anyone present could remember, including our Churchwarden whose Trieste memories go back 40 years! It was a wonderful symbol of New Life, during this Easter season of the Resurrection .

On Ascension Day, 1st May, and the following Sunday, we thought about Jesus Christ's Glory, and his prayer that all his disciples would be one, and how we learn this through Faith, Hope and Love. I felt we had been given a glimpse of that during our meeting the previous Sunday.