The parish picnic
It was today. I didn't go. Instead, it was my turn to celebrate and preach at the early service (7:45 a.m.). Because of the Eucharist and picnic at the park at 10:30 a.m., we did not have our later two regular Sunday services.
No matter how many verbal and written (newsletter, web page, midweek e-mail, and parish Facebook page) announcements we make, people still show up at the regular Sunday morning times.
Today was no exception. One younger family thought they would go ahead to the picnic later. Another visitor, in town for the summer writers' workshop, was crushed that the 8:45 service was not about to happen. She told me that she'd counted on joining us every summer since 2004, and this time hadn't checked the website. Today also is her birthday. Because I did not, for once, have to begin the next service with the usual 4 minutes in between, I realized that she and I could indeed celebrate a shortened form of the Eucharist, and that is what we did. Our visitor knew all the responses. When I put bread into her hands, her face lit up as though she'd just been given the best gift in the world.
After she left, I got to join a table of parishioners from the early service at their customary gathering place for coffee across the street -- something I've never been able to do. Sitting with them proved to be another great gift. I'm sure I've said elsewhere in this blog that I find it challenging to have three services on Sunday, mostly because two of them are crammed together, so I can' t give the early crowd the time they need to talk. Today, it happened. There must be a way to make space for them more often.
Meanwhile, I wondered what was happening at the picnic. I wondered if any flies tried to get into the chalice, or if the preacher could even be heard in that outdoor space. While it was humid today, it wasn't nearly 100 degrees, as was predicted earlier in the week, and for that I'm glad. I may have missed some fun. But I wouldn't have traded my early morning, the birthday guest, or the time with some of our long-time parishioners for anything.
No matter how many verbal and written (newsletter, web page, midweek e-mail, and parish Facebook page) announcements we make, people still show up at the regular Sunday morning times.
Today was no exception. One younger family thought they would go ahead to the picnic later. Another visitor, in town for the summer writers' workshop, was crushed that the 8:45 service was not about to happen. She told me that she'd counted on joining us every summer since 2004, and this time hadn't checked the website. Today also is her birthday. Because I did not, for once, have to begin the next service with the usual 4 minutes in between, I realized that she and I could indeed celebrate a shortened form of the Eucharist, and that is what we did. Our visitor knew all the responses. When I put bread into her hands, her face lit up as though she'd just been given the best gift in the world.
After she left, I got to join a table of parishioners from the early service at their customary gathering place for coffee across the street -- something I've never been able to do. Sitting with them proved to be another great gift. I'm sure I've said elsewhere in this blog that I find it challenging to have three services on Sunday, mostly because two of them are crammed together, so I can' t give the early crowd the time they need to talk. Today, it happened. There must be a way to make space for them more often.
Meanwhile, I wondered what was happening at the picnic. I wondered if any flies tried to get into the chalice, or if the preacher could even be heard in that outdoor space. While it was humid today, it wasn't nearly 100 degrees, as was predicted earlier in the week, and for that I'm glad. I may have missed some fun. But I wouldn't have traded my early morning, the birthday guest, or the time with some of our long-time parishioners for anything.
posted by Raisin at
1:54 PM
3 Comments:
But...but...but, we've always done it this way!
Archer: Precisely.
It almost rained!!!!
During the Eucharist, the wind was blowing, and a few drops of rain fell. I thought that it would work out that we were doing an enacted prayer by having a parish picnic, an event in some years guaranteed to bring rain.
Light attendance from Trinity; pretty good attendance from NewSong. I had my first experience of one of the New Zealand "collects" of the day -- I haven't heard how it came out, but the proposal before their convention was to ditch all of the traditional Collects of the Day and replace them with newly written non-Trinitarian short prayers, which (if this was an example) are very light on content or relevance to anything. There was also careful avoidance of the word "Lord" (for example, "God be with you/And also with you" in the opening dialogue).
We had a visitor new to town show up at 5 pm for Evensong. "The website says you have it." And so it does, on the front page list of services, despite repeated attempts on my part to get it corrected.
I did not drop everything and sing Evensong with him; I probably should have, but I was focused on running the copying machine. I gave him the schedule of the weekday Offices and told him about Choral and Jazz Evensong; he seemed content.
I am glad that you got to visit with the 7:45 group! They get the short end of the stick in this parish.
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