The Rev Philomena sat down. She had just called the reader of the day's scripture forward. With shock she realised that her panty was wet. The man who had concluded the presentation part of the programme with a rousing solo had apparently given her more excitement than she had realised. He had sung the words of the Twenty-third Psalm to a tune she had never heard before. In her words of appreciation, she feared she had gone overboard but she could see in the faces of the gathered that that song too had profoundly affected them. She had gone so far as to suggest that he move to her parish and join the choir.
At that point Philomena had no clue that a few times before he had actually sung with that choir at the invitation of the Choir master, who was a family friend, and had been since they were children. She could not know that as she praised his song, he heard the words, but was also noticing that she was of slender build, and was impressed by the power of her voice. He idly wondered how it could come out of such a spare frame. She was a very attractive woman, who, if she did not go into ministry, could have made a glamorous TV presenter. He thought he would try to obtain her contacts from the choirmaster, but he could not immediately think of a plausible excuse why he should be after her phone number.
After the service was over the leaders withdrew to the vestry in fine Presbyterian fashion. There, among the comments made in post-mortem of the service, was the solo that had so roused her emotions. One of the elders responded to her earlier comment about the singer joining them. The singer had in fact previously sung with the choir, he said, and was a friend of his family. The Reverend's pulse quickened.
"He has to visit us on Harvest Sunday next month," she quickly put in. "Do you have his contacts so you can help us invite him?"
"I can let you have it. After all the invitation will be better coming from you, Rev." The post-mortem moved on to other matters. But Philomena was assured of getting to the singer directly herself.
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"Good morning Ian! This is Rev Philomena of Ganiso parish. You visited us at the time of the demise of Elder Fred."
"Good morning Rev! What a lovely surprise! I was very blessed to be among you. I enjoyed the church organ very much. As always your services are sober and grounded."