I like to get up to the vicarage from time to time – there’s always plenty of food to be stolen – so when I heard that Father Scott was inviting the congregation for mince pies and mulled wine before Christmas, I thought that was a great opportunity to visit.  The evening was a bit sparsely attended due to fresh snow falls blocking the roads, but a few perseverant parishioners made the journey on foot.

Included amongst them were two small boys, who were invited to dress the Christmas tree while the adults engaged in mundane conversation and worshiping of the baby (by which I mean Father Scott’s baby daughter, Charlotte, not the baby Jesus).  After a while the tree was looking great and the children were starting to get bored with discussions of the vicarage foundations.  (I was happy enough with all the crumbs they had dropped on the carpet!)  I thought they’d be leaving soon, when Father Scott asked if they liked card tricks.  When they said that they did, he proceeded to conjure a coin from their ears, and then pulled a deck of cards from his own mouth.  He went on to make coins appear and disappear in his hands and magically to guess which card the boys were thinking of.  It was very impressive, and certainly kept the children entertained for a while.  But I started to worry about magical powers in the hands of a priest.  Were these a gift from God, I started to wonder, or were they something darker?  Eventually Father scott gave a quick demonstration of how one of the tricks was done.  A sleight of hand, a confusing misdirection – all an illusion.  There was no power here, except the power to entertain – simply a well practiced skill.  So next time you’re looking for biscuits in the church hall and find that they have mysteriously disappeared, you know who to blame.  No, not the parish priest’s magic tricks!  It’s yours truly, the Church Mouse.

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