Oxfordshire countryside

My friends Ric and Val Morton Jack live in the Oxfordshire village of Swerford, near Chipping Norton. At noon today I baptised their first born, Arthur John. I celebrated Ric and Val's wedding at the Oxford  Oratory a couple of years ago, so today was particularly special. Unusally the baptism took place in the old church in Swerford with the agreement of the parish priest, Bishop Mark Jabele and the kind permission of the rector and his lovely assistant, Wendy Cunningham. I have been pondering at Eastertide baptisms a thought I had for the Easter Sunday 10.30am Mass; simply that in a human face, the face of the risen Christ, we see our God. In the faces of those who become Christ's through baptism we are privileged to understand in such an initmate way that baptism is the sacrament of eternal life. Through our baptism 'we shall go out to meet Christ with the all the saints in the heavenly Kingdom.'    
Arthur was very happy throughout and only flagged a little towards the end. He is the first Morton Jack grandson and the third of four for the Sloane family whom I know from my Camberley days.The splendid standard of Sloane hospitality was maintained by Val Morton Jack's excellent duck ragu.