It was a very long funeral for Andrew (here). I have become more tolerant of longish eulogies and it was long. But he was a most excellent man, and there was much to say.
Apart from seeing his eldest son James take on the mantle of the eldest male, I was struck for the first time by how much he looked like Andrew. More than that, there was a very deft touch and insight which was like the ghostly mantle being passed on.
There was a tribute from a priest friend, who, I suppose, was the one of us who was sacrificed to the humiliation of crying and snorting his grief in front of the few hundred people therein gathered. I have been caught before by sudden overwhelming, unexpected grief; so it was not surprising to see numbers of us so afflicted.
Dear friend! We shall miss you. What a gift you have been to everyone who knew you! What a challenge to those of us who struggle to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek but find it too hard! If I could just be as good a priest, or half as good..or a quarter..as Andrew then I would ahve done well.
But I am nowhere close.
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