The aumbry lamp

I am home today, recovering from whatever I came down with Friday. Family were going to come home right after the service ended, but when they still hadn't shown 2-1/2 hours after the service I figured something was up -- and it was.

The aumbry lamp was being discussed again. I say "again" cautiously because the last discussions I recall were from around 1987 or so, when the lamp (a family heirloom) had been donated to St. Bartholomew's soon after the building was finished.

The question was: would it contain a candle (which it was designed for), or would it have an electric lamp. A significant question, since the lamp is supposed to remain lit whenever the Reserve Sacrament is in the aumbry. Several factors, including fire safety and the trouble of maintaining a candle when the church (and property) was vacant most of the week, went into the decision to re-fit it with a small low-wattage lamp.

It seems Fr. Davis has re-opened the question, conferring with the original donors. A candle is still out of the question, but it seems it might be possible to fit it with an oil lamp, which are apparently commonly used and have a burn time of a week. We'll see what develops.

Surprise visit

The Thanksgiving Day Mass (at 10 AM) had pretty much the usual attendance, but there was a surprise after the service: Dr. Monty Stanford and his wife were present! Apparently they were visiting in the Seattle area and this was going to be the one occasion they could join us. What a delight, it's only a shame they will not be able to be with us Sunday.

But if all goes well, I'll see them again at Synod at the end of April -- assuming one of my 6 or 7 work-related committees doesn't schedule a meeting at the same time, as happened this year... and last year... and...

(Dr. Stanford produces our provincial newsletter, Christus Rex, in my humble opinion an excellent publication and service to the Anglican Province of Christ the King.)

Note to self: Ask Fr. Davis about an 8 AM Mass? By the time we get home from the service, start the Weber grill, get the turkey on it... it's well into evening before dinner. (I am NOT going have a lit charcoal grill going with nobody present to supervise.)

The dark days of winter

The dark days of winter are finally upon us and several people were reacting to them, including Fr. Davis who said he is already looking forward to spring. I'm even feeling a touch of it, though I adjusted a couple of decades ago. It's clearly going to be a long winter, the down side of our gorgeous summers. But this is why our Christmas lights go up outside at the very beginning of Advent and remain on until Twelfthnight (the end of Christmas), turned off along with the tree (which goes up on Christmas eve) for Epiphany. A bit of cheer through the gloom.

But it seems others may be feeling it too. After church I was extremely surprised to see a car with a Christmas tree strapped on top (circled in the photo). It's not even Thanksgiving yet!!!

(Speaking of trees: per a lunchtime discussion Friday I sent Fr. Davis a link to a blog post from a couple of years back, The Trees of St. Mary's. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say.)

Reviving the Continuing Anglican BlogRing

Years ago I set up the "Continuing Anglican BlogRing", a means for traversing through a ring of registered Continuing Anglican blogs. After a while activity on the ring dropped to zero so I quit putting in the time and effort to maintain it. Suddenly there seems to be interest again, so I put in the time to verify that it could still be traversed.

Unfortunately, some blogs have gone away and others have removed the navigation bar code ("navbar"). I have had to remove 8 entries and deactivate 6, but the ring should work again now. Unfortunately, there are three basic forms of the navbar and it is not always placed in the same place on each blog, so one may have to hunt for it. (In the few cases where it's not in a sidebar it is probably at the very bottom of the page.)

Update an hour later: A hearty welcome to Fr. Ed Bakker and his blog, entered into the ring just two minutes ago!

The latest Christus Rex is out...

... and it's another superb work by Monty Stanford. Not at all biased by the fact that it leads off with St. Bartholomew's: Fr. Davis' institution, the Schola Cantorum, and an article on Fr. Davis (a regular series so we can get to know our clergy all across the Province). And much other good news -- congratulations to St. Paul's, Redmond OR, on their new church building!

Take a look (PDF).

Good-byes

While I was away in Denver I received very unhappy news: one of our member families has left. Maybe it wasn't a very big surprise: from where they live it's a LONG drive to get here and circumstances have changed from when they joined, to make it considerably more difficult for them to get here. I'd seen some of these difficulties and when their recent effort to move closer fell through, well, I guess this was inevitable. (Will they remain in the greater Seattle area too? I guess not, for similar reasons.)

I commend them for trying. When we moved to Seattle over a quarter-century ago and tried to find an ECUSA church home, we drew the boundaries of our search rather a bit closer than what they regularly drove. (But I don't think that extending our range would have produced any better results; we were simply intended to be here in our "continuing" home.)

In case they check in on this blog I will merely wish them "good-bye" in the original sense of, which Fr. Leen always loved to remind us, an earlier-English contraction of "God be with you."

God-speed, y'all. We're going to miss you.

Stewardship Program and other happenings

Well, it's autumn and so, of course, the Stewardship Program (AKA Annual Ingathering) is underway. Being away (and not on the Vestry) I seem to have missed its start but it was clear from an item in this week's email from Fr. Davis to the Parish.

I just learned about other things going on, as well. Feeding Tent City 4 on Monday, November 30th; I wonder what our master chef Drew will come up this time for their repast.

And Barbara, bless her, has started a collection to support our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Last night, when our plane pulled up to the gate at SeaTac airport, one of the stewardesses added to the usual announcement to remain seated a remark about how we had "some of America's finest" aboard the aircraft -- before she could even finish the entire plane erupted in applause.)

That's it for now. Tomorrow morning I'll be at the airport again, on my way to the conference in Denver. It's too bad we don't have an 8:15 Mass.

ACW Sale

Many thanks to Claire, without whom I could not have posted about the sale and who provided the photos for the blog! The entire event was for me one of miscommunication leading to missed opportunities. One element of last Saturday's ACW (Anglican Church Women) sale was the raffle of this creche. The ACW wanted a picture of it (for the tickets?), but because of several miscommunications (one of which had me arriving at the church, camera and other accessories in hand, with nobody to let me in) opportunities to take the photo slid by right up until it was time to head for the airport.

About the sale itself I know little but a subsequent e-mail from Fr. Davis to the Parish indicates it was quite successful, as usual. So it seems the bad weather didn't keep folks away.

Report request

Since I cannot be there, I've asked for pictures and a report on today's sale. Assuming the Parish Hall is still above water and with power, based on reports of the weather there. Looking at the St. Bartholomew's Weather and Road Conditions Page, it doesn't look good.

Touch and Go

In the previous post, I wrote:

But at least, Deo volunte, I will be home the week after that. Yesterday I narrowly dodged attendance the following week at a conference in Denver, to be present for the kickoff of yet another committee on which I am likely to serve.

Long story short: when I got back from dinner and checked my e-mail this evening I learned that I hadn't dodged it after all.

Fly home Friday,
Fly out Sunday,
Touch and Go.

The question is whether I can get an afternoon flight at a time that lets me attend Mass that Sunday and catch up with my parish family (e-mail just isn't adequate). Denver is close enough that it might be possible. Deo volunte.

Update 11/21: Wasn't possible; I was dropped off at the transit center to catch a bus to the airport, arriving about the time Mass began. BUT the morning after I returned from Denver, there was an e-mail inviting me to a Dept. of Energy workshop near D.C. in mid-December. Yet another trip loomed -- but there was a conflict so I will get to stay put at least until early 2010.

Selah

Once again, it's more than likely there will be a pause in the blog. Tied up in offsite corporate training this week (through tomorrow), I am off on a red-eye flight to Atlanta tomorrow night to participate in 8 straight days of technical committee meetings at Georgia Tech. I've been through this lengthy meeting routine before and it's pretty grueling, even when one starts out rested.

There is a church in our communion that may be reachable via public transport. If it all works out, the Wandering Anglican will pay a visit and report back here.

But at least, Deo volunte, I will be home the week after that. Yesterday I narrowly dodged attendance the following week at a conference in Denver, to be present for the kickoff of yet another committee on which I am likely to serve. It would not have been fun to fly home Friday night only to fly out again Sunday morning -- or worse, early afternoon when I would have still had to have been at SEA (U.S. airline code for SeaTac airport) early Sunday morning so family could attend services.

Sadly, I will miss everything about the ACW autumn/Christmas sale which will be held Saturday the 7th. We had a comedy of missed/confused communications over the past two weeks about my taking some pictures of a finely detailed creche set that will be raffled off. A series of assumptions took place, only one of which had to be wrong, for me to have come up with a photo of the set, using the makeshift low-cost photographic accessories I've been developing. But everything fell through, leaving Nancy to come to the rescue.

Come on by!