Wannabe visitor

We arrived at church a bit later than normal this Sunday. Knowing that Fr. Daniel was not going to be there (he had e-mailed me a copy of his homily yesterday so I could read it in the service today), I had assumed there would be no Bible Study class. I know I wasn't the only one to make that assumption because nobody else showed up either. Except Deacon Ed, who was prepared to teach today's class. Oops! Still, because we had our various preparations for the service we weren't much later than usual.

When we pulled into the lot we saw Ed's car and an unfamiliar truck, but thought nothing about the latter. Until we went inside.

Kathy went downstairs and then called up something about a visitor, somebody I knew... and then I remembered. Blogger WannabeNewbie Anglican (link) had mentioned a while back that he'd probably visit sometime in July, and back on the 5th he'd noted he was going to be away from his blog for two to three blogs. Yup -- Mark had arrived, and apparently had already joined Ed for Matins.

So we visited a bit, sat through Ed's class (and of course my KJV and notebook were at home), and then Ed and I had to go prepare for the Deacon's Mass.

After the service (I'll let Mark make his humorous comment about the service itself) and coffee hour Mark, Kathy and I went out to lunch in Redmond and had a most pleasant visit.

I made some comment about the percentage of Continuing Anglican bloggers in the room, but I think I was rather high; I remembered somebody having list "the" three Continuing Anglican blogs (WannabeNewbie Anglican, The Continuum, and Continuing Home), but I am not sure whether some of the other Anglican bloggers are in Continuing churches.

I don't know that my travels will ever take me to Corpus Christi, but if they do I'll be paying a return visit. It's always interesting to meet someone from another Continuing church, and for my part my introduction to Mark's blog was a fascinating, delightful and entertaining look at our church from the perspective of somebody new to it -- something a "cradle Anglican" will never have. (Hmmm... that might make an interesting book, but it probably has only a really small market.)

And Mark, thank you for the books! Safe journeys...

7/19 Update: Mark has written up his experience here.