A visit to the Church of the Resurrection

[Posting now fixed.]

Please forgive the long silence on this blog. I didn't have much to report last week, and since then various things have conspired against my posting until now.

Friday morning we flew from Seattle to Hartford CT to bury my grandmother-in-law. Beatrice (aka "Granny Impy", the nickname my wife as a child gave her) was only 106 and had been rePlease forgive the long silence on this blog. I didn't have much to report last week, and since then various things have conspired against my posting until now.

Friday morning we flew from Seattle to Hartford CT to bury my grandmother-in-law. Beatrice (aka "Granny Impy", the nickname my wife as a child gave her) was only 106 and had been ready to go for some time, so it was much more a celebration of her life among us than an occasion of mourning, though there were a few tears.

And it was time to be with family, who had come together for the occasion. Yes, they're my family "only" by marriage, but I married into a really great family almost 28 years ago and my only sorrow is that my father-in-law had already passed on years ago. I wish he were still with us (and I know I'm not alone in that).

But six and a half years have passed since the last get-together, which was Granny Impy's 100th birthday. Amazing to see the next generation growing up so quickly. Clearly this is what happens when you get older: six years means little to me, to a child it's all the difference in the world.

In any event, Norfolk CT made us Seattlites feel right at home with highs pinned at 46F and occasional drizzle, a break from the heat wave they'd had earlier. Very cool and pleasant, even if everyone else was shivering.

Saturday we started with the burial of her ashes in the graveyard, then moved on to the Episcopal chapel for the memorial service. It's odd, but I had never been in that chapel before though my wife and I were both (cradle) Episcopalians when we were married. The chapel is not self-sufficient and depends on visiting clergy when it is open during the summer. It is beautiful, as the picture can only hint, and reminiscent of the beautiful redwood church in California that was our last Episcopal home. (Hard to say which would have been "better": to be married here, or in the grand New England Congregational church on the green where we were married. But "location" is the least of it all except in old pictures.)

I suffered a small shock when I saw the list of visiting clergy for this summer and recognized a name from a time not so long ago (before Lent) when I was following the events in the Episcopal church. Well, we were in Connecticut after all!

But all that aside, it was a wonderful memorial service.

Later that evening we made our way south to within "striking distance" of Ansonia CT, where a sister parish, The Anglican Church of the Resurrection, resides.

We had a few difficulties getting there, given regional differences in street-naming conventions that MapQuest and others have not resolved, plus a missing street sign, but we did manage to arrive in time. Just.

Wonderful people! I am ashamed that 4 days later I have forgotten the name of the fellow in the pew in front of us who took great pains to be sure we could follow the service (until I whispered, "We are Anglicans").

But overall I already knew the service by heart. (The bulletin implied they were using the Anglican Missal, but as a "1928 BCP" Anglican I saw no difference.)

Incense? Plenty -- and all of a sudden I now understand the difference between "pure frankincense" and "potpourri incense", and I say count me among those who prefer the former.

In any event, it was a delight to visit another prospering Anglican church. (And though this is not the venue for "How I brought my church out of TEC", the stories of how churches & facilities made their way to the APCK is interesting.)