Missing is what I've been for three out of four of the Sunday services at my church in the last month. Here's where I've been when I've not been in my church:
Grandparents Day Mass at Jesuit High School in New Orleans.
Service at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans with Bishop Katharine presiding and preaching.
Mass for sixth grade students - one of whom is my granddaughter - at a local Roman Catholic Church. (What do you do when a beautiful little girl gives you a handmade invitation? You go, of course.)
I hope that next week, I can attend my church. I miss it when I'm away.
Week after next, I will be in New York city for a gathering of friends of MadPriest. Unfortunately, our leader will not be with us. He lives too far away. (A little birdie told me he's afraid to fly, too, but that is only rumor and, of course, I could be wrong.) We'll try to soldier on and enjoy ourselves anyway, although it will not be the same with him missing.
I'm not sure where I'll be going to church on Sunday in NYC. I do know that we will be attending Evensong at General Theological Seminary on Monday evening.
Well, there are so many great choices for church in NYC, and I've been to a lot of them. Still my favorite is probably Saint John the Divine. You can always expect the unexpected there. One of my best church memories was Lessons and Carols there on Christmas Eve. It's done as a pageant with live actors and animals. During the service, the donkey answered nature's call in front of the high altar, and Mary had to breast feed a crying baby Jesus. I was never so happy to be an Episcopalian!
ReplyDeleteWonderful story, John. It gives me a warm feeling all over, too.
ReplyDeleteI love St. John's, though I haven't been in the last few years; unless I've got something else in mind, it's my go-to place.
ReplyDeleteMimi: Land Sakes! Is one cafe gonna be big enough for all us, or are we gonna have ta "kick out out all the windows, and knock out all the doors"
I'm looking forward to a Wang Wang Doodle, in a very TEC way; OCICBW.
You have no idea how much I'd like to meet everyone in NYC! Drat it all, my schedule doesn't lend itself to a trip.
ReplyDeleteI'll be with you in spirit, an in the spirits!
Janis
Johnieb, I'm wandering myself whether the boîte that's been chosen will hold everyone.
ReplyDeleteJanis, I'm pleased to know that your spirit will be with us, if not your body - and so near Halloween, too. We'll raise a glass to the bodies who are not present.
I wish I could be there with you all. It will be the end of Fall Break here. For much of the week I am running for the hills, literally, for much needed solitude, a few deep thoughts (I hope), and the time to write them down, and then Sunday the 21st I am preaching, so I have to be Church Lady in Greensboro that day. Then Monday we're back to school and I teach two classes.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of incarnational blogging, say a prayer for our blogger friend Simple Village Organist, who has vanished from both his blog and e-mail-land and whom I have been trying to reach unsuccessfully in LA.
Jane, I have been quite concerned about Ed, too. He simply vanished. I will pray. I hope we get good news soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you won't be with us in NYC, but I'm sure you will be with us in spirit.
Seems that the Hunting Season has progressed from mooses to Mimis?
ReplyDeleteYes, I would have to say in NY Saint John the Divine ... or maybe Trinity Wall St ... wait - got it. If I had to choose just one of the great NYC churches, it would probaly be St Mary's on Time Square. I have a friend that did a summer internship there - gotta love that it is so high church that it is know as "Smokey Mary's".
ReplyDeleteI actually had someone stop by my home this afternoon to tell me all about the wonderful service they attended at one of the evangelical upstarts in town. I somehow think that takes a little nerve - to go to your pastor's house on Sunday morning after not being in church, to talk about the services at another church. The individual in question works at a beauty salon, so I am thinking of sending my wife into the shop to talk about the great highlights she got at a local competitor.
Please have a wonderful trip - enjoy yourself, relax, and have a blast.
Mimi, you've been busy at other churches! How exciting that you'll be going to NY--I'm glad to know that you'll describe the events there to us afterwards. I was glad to find my church as holy during the Eucharist, despite our beloved priest's absence. I needed that reassurance today and thank God for it.
ReplyDeleteLapin, I did see that I've become prey - AGAIN! - at OCICBW.
ReplyDeletePastor David, I may have missed the service at my church and attended another, but I assure you that I did not have the chutzpah to stop by the rector's house to tell him how great the service was at the other church. I know better than that.
In fact, for all I know the rector may read my blog, so I won't say a word about the other service.
Jan, I'm sure I'll have stories to tell when I return from the trip. I plan to to have a great time.
I love NYC, and usually don't let more than two years pass between visits. There's a wonderful energy there that I seem to absorb. I want to take it all in each time I'm there.
What a busy woman!
ReplyDeleteI will hopefully be in NYC and not Albany when you are in town.
Fran, I hope I get to see you, too.
ReplyDeleteNow you know I'm no expert on churches... but I've been told that St. Luke in the Fields (which is not really in a field, but in the West Village) is a pretty happenin' place. Also, it's a great neighborhood for just walking around, post-church.
ReplyDeleteHave a look.
I actually know one of the priests (we took a class together) from St Luke in the Fields. It does look lovely, but I have never been.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous, and wish I could be with you in NY. I just can't get away on weekends so easily. You have so many great choices of places to worship!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have been concerned about Ed, too. I always enjoyed his blog, and he's just gone.
St. Luke's will most certainly be one of the candidates under consideration for Sunday worship.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I'm sorry you won't be joining us, but you'll be joining us in spirit. We'll have so many disembodied spirits floating around. It must be the season.
Are we allowed to gossip about you if you're there only in spirit?
I would be pleased to invite you to my parish, Mimi, but it is a train ride away (8:14 out of Penn Station in order not to be late to the 10:00 Choral Eucharist). Diverse, friendly, great preaching, great music (scheduled Palestrina Super flumina Babylonis and Harold Friedell Come my way, my truth, my life), and I'll throw in lunch.
ReplyDeleteOr if you find somewhere better I'll give my choir director my regrets and join you.
St. John the Divine is a good old standby. I went there one summer to the early service. Nice people and a super coffee hour. But, I'd go to St. Luke in the Fields. I think Roger Ferlo is still rector there. It's a very literary and literate parish. Pick up one of the literary magazines they publish. And it's an easy trip from anywhere. Just get off at Christopher Street and go left on Hudson. It's about a block after that. It's big so you'll see it. Just follow the Anglicans. ANd have fun!
ReplyDeleteLindy
PS - Mary's is for faries.
Paul, I love you and I'm sure I'd love your parish, too, but I am not an early morning person. But I'd love to have you join me at something a little later in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI'm also thinking of Tobias' church, St. James, in the vicinity of Fordham in the Bronx. It was built in the early 1860s and has lovely Tiffany stained glass windows - according to the pictures on the website.
So many choices. We shall see. Perhaps God will show me the way.
Lindy, I don't mind the fairies.
I was afraid of that, Mimi. Tobias does sound tempting.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that Mimi is intending to fly a guest to New York from some place called Newcastle in England. And at her own expense. How generous.
ReplyDeleteI think church is where you happen to be if you are in the right spirit.
D.P.
And at her own expense. How generous.
ReplyDeleteDP, that is nothing but a nasty rumor.
We could take up a collection. But then we'd have the problem of flying which apparently he won't do.
ReplyDeleteHe has nominated me as his representative. Start the collection.
ReplyDeleteD.P.
Piskie, I'll let you and DP work out the details of this arrangement.
ReplyDeleteDarn I wish I could be there!
ReplyDeleteJan, I wish you could be with us, too. Maybe we'll plan the next one on the West Coast.
ReplyDeleteThe West Coast! Yes! Next time. In the meantime, have a great time everyone and I hope you can agree on a church...Did anyone think of St. Thomas'?
ReplyDeleteSusan, St. Thomas is in the mix. Sorry you can't be with us. Another time.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we go to....Newcastle?
ReplyDeleteSeriously!
Start saving for your vacations - it is a fantastic city.
D.P.
DP, another time, perhaps in Newcastle. But I would absolutely want to surprise our friend. I'd like to drop in en masse, unannounced, at one of the services at St. Francis.
ReplyDelete