St. Thomas the Tank Engine

Yesterday on the church calendar was St. Thomas the Apostle. Doubting Thomas, celebrated on the darkest day of the year (and it has been an unusually dark time lately, even for the Pacific Northwest, noon a couple of days ago looked almost like dusk). Instead of 7:30 AM Matins we celebrated Morning Prayer and Holy Communion at 10 AM. A nice combining of the services that gives us an Old Testament reading in addition to the Epistle and Gospel.

And one hymn, sung a capella. Although the hymn is an Easter hymn in the Hymnal, some rubric somewhere permits it to be sung in Advent, for St. Thomas, if only selected verses are sung. This explained the odd appearance of the hymn board. And I seem to recall that Fr. Daniel noted this was the one time we'd sing "Alleluia" in Advent.

While preparing for the service, Fr. Daniel remarked that little Danny was excited to be coming to church that morning, because his favorite character is named Thomas -- Thomas the Tank Engine.

With that I wasn't too surprised to see a Thomas the Tank Engine toy in the Parish Hall this morning during the Men's Breakfast. But I learned more about Thomas the Tank Engine from Fr. Daniel. The original story is over 60 years old, written by an Anglican clergyman in England. I'd only just heard of it, but apparently is becoming ever more popular with books, videos and more.

The question of "tank engine" was raised during the Men's Breakfast this morning; it seems it's another term for steam locomotive. Steam -- the older men in the group remembered "steam shovels" (the predecessor to today's hydraulic backhoe shovels), some of the younger didn't seem to know the term. (Books like this are what I remember.)