Tea with the Bishop

Yesterday the Parish Administrators who work in the parishes of our diocese were invited to have tea with the Bishop.   Afterwards we were given a tour of the palace by the Bishop himself and his wife. It was extremely interesting especially looking at the huge portraits of former bishops going back centuries.  When my youngest son was quite small he said to me that he would like to become a bishop. I asked him why, he said "because they live in a place" - not a bad reason!

They may live in a rather large palace but their actual living quarters are quite small compared to the rest of the building.

                                               Here is the Bishop standing outside his door.

I was intrigued at the pectoral cross the Bishop was wearing, it was made of wood with four other small crosses in the middle, I should have asked him about it but was too busy looking at everything else!  Pectoral crosses are worn almost exclusively by higher ranking clergy such as cardinals and bishops, at the centre  of the chest (Latin pectoralis), and traditionally made from precious metals or gemstones so this particular cross must be for every day use!                         


This is a cross made by "I'm in the garage" many years ago and it is made from ebony. 
I have worn it in the past but feel it is a little too large and ornate.  Probably best suited for a Bishop.

The tatted brown cross is from Mary Konior's Book Tatting with Visual Patterns.  Instead of using 40 thread I used 20 which is why it looks a bit big and cumbersome, I added a few beads and should have pressed and blocked it but sort of lost interest.  I shall not be tatting the pattern again.