Less alone

The latest edition of Christus Rex, the province's newsletter, arrived in my e-mail March 18th. And the news it conveyed was a delight!

For most of my time at St. Bartholomew's, one of the more difficult elements had been our relative isolation from the rest of the province: the next nearest parish was in California, a day's drive away. But last year we welcomed two new parishes in Bend and Grants Pass, Oregon. And the latest issue of Christus Rex announced that the Parish of St. Mark, Portland, had joined us. Looking at their photo we're just a humble little neighborhood parish by comparison, but that's okay. Welcome!

Some unknown soul updated our parish communion map with a blue pushpin for St. Mark in the past week or so. As you can see, we're not so much alone anymore.

(That flag in the lower left of the photo? Diocese of the West Summer Camp 2009 -- NOT to be missed!)

Rites of Spring

Spring arrived Friday (sometime after 4 AM local time if I read correctly some web pages about Nowruz/Norooz/?, the Persian New Year which starts precisely on the equinox), and the Men's Group met Saturday for Matins, breakfast and after a period of fellowship and chat, the traditional rites of Spring... spring cleaning!

Here Matt works long and hard to clear ALL the gutters. It would be an easier job if we didn't have all those really tall PNW trees around.

Found on camera (Ash Wed for Kids)

I went to unload some pictures from the camera for new blog entries and was puzzled to see a number of photos from an event I did not recall attending. And after studying them a while I realized: I wasn't there. Though the camera was.

The event was the Ash Wednesday (Evensong) for kids, and in fact a few of the children were there, from babies to teens, though it seems to have been oriented mostly to the younger children. It looks like it was both fun and educational for the kids.

If the clock didn't get you, the ice did...

...was the essence of a remark by Deacon Miller this morning. And it's true our numbers were down a bit this morning. I simply forgot about daylight savings time going into effect last night, until I turned on my computer and saw the time change. Oops. At least it was early enough that I could make it to church in time for the Scripture Study class.

Except for the icy roads. We had hail and snow last night and road conditions were terrible; a nearby auto accident took one life, and another hill was littered with cars that couldn't make it up. We noted a few off the road on the way to church... a reminder to slow down and take it easy.

Others were not so lucky. The northern contingent didn't make it at all. Apparently the big snowfall slated for Woodinville went a bit further north instead. One phone call expressed uncertainty about road conditions in Woodinville -- as a result the church website now has a Weather & Road Conditions page.

The earliest smiley? :)

Last Sunday during our parish Scripture class, I happened to note what looks like the world's oldest smiley. Referring to God's Secretaries by Adam Nicholson, a gift from Fr. McGrath during an autumn retreat, we can probably lay credit to at least one of: Thomas Ravis, George Abbot, Richard Eedes, Giles Tomson, Sir Henry Savile, John Peryn or Perne, Ralph Ravens,, John Harmar, Leonard Hutten, John Agionby, and James Montague or Montagu.

Who are these folks? The "Second Oxford Company," the unsung and mostly unknown translators of "The Acts of the Apostles" for the King James Bible. (If you haven't read Nicholson's book, I recommend it.)

And if you read the end product of their work, in Acts 18:2, some 4 centuries later (online even), you'll see an Internet smiley; ":)".

I have no idea why that colon is there but I've checked a number of places and it's there.

So I'll add, for all the rest of the Internet junkies who read this blog: Anglicans may have had the smiley first. (Look it up! :)