Quiet streets and full hearts Returning from a pilgrimage to Rome in around 750 St Himelin fell ill in Vissenaeken. He asked for water from a maid carrying a pitcher to the nearby rectory. She at first refused out of fear of a plague that was afflicting the region but, moved with pity, she relented. When she got to the rectory the priest was astonished to discover that the water in the pitcher had turned to wine. He at once went to find Himelin and took him back to the rectory, where he cared for the stranger until Himelin died of the plague on 10 March. The maid and priest’s cautious altruism is not dissimilar to our own modern-day reaction to the pandemic. Cycling down the High and into Radcliffe Square it is still strange to see the empty streets – no crowds of tourists or hurrying students – and seeing St Mary’s shuttered and starkly silent is even more surreal. In our newly hushed surroundings, though, we can remind ourselves that the church and our hearts are still full of God, and that we can hold St Mary’s in our hearts as we worship at a distance. While many of our churchwardens’ duties have carried on remotely, there are some which prove far more challenging to undertake as they are so bound up with the physical being of St Mary’s. Not being able to meet the clergy, congregation and staff face to face, or even examine some suspect chancel paving, is hard. In this new form of churchwardenship we send messages, photos and videos to cheer each other up, sharing the small but so important delights of watching lambs gambolling in the fields and robins proclaiming joy (or territorial ambition) from our gardens. We are, however, delighted with the large number of new lockdown-era initiatives, and the zeal with which they are produced and enjoyed, which emphasise the importance of the fellowship, love and connection to our church community that we all feel. And we are comforted by St Paul’s words in his letter to the Romans, ‘Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer’, and above all ‘love one another’. Nicholas Hardyman & Megan Roper Churchwardens | 
