Date update

It appears (Arch)Bishop Provence will be here Sunday, October 10th. And so will I -- I don't fly out until the 11th! (Unlike today, when I had to be back at the airport early in the morning.)

It appears we will have some confirmations that day, and one will get an additional birthday blessing from Bishop Provence -- it will be her birthday.

I don't know about today's celebrations (Feast of St. Bartholomew's translated), but I gather that something happened with our organist Ahra's return trip so that she was not going to be able to be here today.

Confusion

I was still not feeling well this morning, actually a bit worse, so I stayed home today. One week until my next trip, so I NEED to get over this bug!

But Kathy brought a copy of the bulletin home, with all the announcements therein. (I see I will miss the next Men's Breakfast -- I just booked my flights to Zurich, departing that morning.)

But she said the Bishop's Visit was tentatively announced for October 12th, though it would be firmed up this week. When I checked my calendar for conflicts I discovered the 12th is a Tuesday -- that can't be right. I guess I'll just have to wait, though at least that falls in a window where I'll be home on the weekends.

Proud of our kids!

Fr. Davis emailed me a few photos of the St. Bartholomew's Youth Group from their planning, preparation and execution of the dinner for Tent City 4, a homeless camp currently located not far down the road from us. Sadly, for various reasons related to the current love of litigation in this country I am becoming rather more reluctant to post identifiable photos, and it just bothers me to post "masked" photos -- so I can't use them.

But looking at the photos he sent I see a fair amount of planning, execution -- and the kids themselves partaking of the same dinner they had already served to Tent City 4. (There's proof in the pudding for you!)

By every report the dinner went well for all, and our kids helped out some of the less fortunate among us.

The Dormition of the B.V.M.

Today's service was rather a bit different from the usual. Instead of Trinity XI we celebrated The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Fr. Davis noted the similar term "Dormition," though the beliefs behind the two terms are slightly different). This by itself might not have been exceptional except that the Propers, and I believe the reading for the Epistle, and the Gospel, came from the Anglican Missal. Having read the Epistle for every Sunday of the year many times I instantly noted the different reading!

Happy Anniversary, Fr. Davis!

Yesterday marked one year since the Davises arrived from Redding CA, so we celebrated with a cake for the occasion. It was also a pleasant surprise to see Fr. Jeffrey and Lynn Smith present this morning, on vacation and escaping (somewhat) the heat of Redding; it seems St. Luke's has a building project underway; we'll pray it goes well.

Fr. Davis announced that the Feast of St. Bartholomew will be transferred to Sunday, August 29th, to coincide the return of our organist, Ahra. Sadly I will miss the occasion due to the first trip of my unusually busy fall travel season.

Missing out

Well, it seems I won't be reading after all. Not recovered enough, and maybe not enough to attend the service tomorrow. If this hit me this hard, it could be much worse for the old folks.

This evening is the dinner Meghan and the Youth Group are preparing for Tent City 4, just down the road. Hope it's something warm to offset the cool, grey, drippy day it is today. It's unusual to have rain this time of year -- not unwelcome because it reduces the chances of fires, but unusual.

Selah?

Somehow I forgot to note ahead of time my absence for almost a couple of weeks. It's almost over now -- I've headed out and returned home and am just waiting to get over this illness (virus? cold?) before getting back into the swing of things. Kathy & I had a good time, visiting a number of my former haunts back in the Midwest for the first time since I left decades ago, though I did not manage to connect with any of my old church parishes.

I'm on the schedule to read Sunday, and it will be such a joy to serve again! "I Am Home!" -- if only for three weeks more before I head out on the 29th to begin my autumn travel season.