Rector's Day Off

I'd held off on this post until the decks had cleared enough to upload and publish the photo that was supposed to accompany this posting... but when it finally happened (this evening) and I looked at the photo on the computer a few minutes ago it was clearly not usable. Too much blur, the bane of otherwise conveniently tiny point-n-shoot digital cameras.

In any event, Sunday was a needed day off for Fr. Daniel. He noted his voice was getting a little raw from all the services during Christmas week, not to mention all the time and effort on his homilies, one of which wound up being mentioned on the Prydain blog just hours after being posted online on the church website.

So he'd arranged for Deacon Ed to conduct the Mass, and because the Deacon's Mass is shorter than the usual Mass we started with Morning Prayer and transitioned into The Order for Holy Communion.

I like this a lot! First off, we sung/chanted a large part of Morning Prayer (that part which we did). In addition we had an Old Testament reading to accompany the Epistle and Gospel. This is A Good Thing, in my humble opinion.

Plus we got a homily from Deacon Ed, whose homiletics are different though absolutely not inferior to Fr. Daniel's (IMHO as a layman). Two strong preachers at the same time in one church -- I think we are blessed. Maybe some day we'll post Deacon Ed's homilies online too.

For his part Fr. Daniel finally got to see a parishioner's view of our service, from walking in holding little Danny through sitting in the pews through the service. I suspect this is a rare experience for Rectors. (Josephine was back at the organ, though, so it wasn't a "whole family" experience. Some day...)

I note that for Epiphany (Saturday) Fr. Daniel has scheduled another Morning Prayer / Holy Communion service. Wonderful! I'd be tempted to record one such for this blog, on the same digital camera with which I messed up the intended photo, but for the fact that you might hear my voice in it. Some things are best heard in person; the ear discriminates better against error than does a recording device, I think.