Mood:  chatty

A lovely Sunday, beginning with a lovely liturgy at the church: nice hymns, superb organ playing, and a fine homily, delivered without any notes, without the homilist's breaking a sweat (at least from where I was sitting). If a priest can make preaching look easy, chances are pretty good, I think, that he is in the correct profession. It is a pity the current Interim Rector is not in the running for a permanent position. A funny thing happened in the middle of the service -- they invited new members to stand up, be recognized and prayed over, and no one did, so the liturgy proceeded. We turned in our filled-out pledge cards: it occurs to me that pledging without knowing who the new Rector will be is a little like "buying a pig in a poke" (in a sack), a saying that was old when I heard as a little boy in the South. So promising to support the parish financially is a leap in faith, even more so than trying on "pre-owned" clothing (a venture that turned out very well, netting me a pair of Arizona Jeans that fit like a glove and two great shirts, one of them the only Perry Ellis I have ever owned.)

 As previously noted, the gospel reading was apocalyptic, and I was interested to see how apocalyptic (which is a noun as well as an adjective), would be handled during the homily. The priest who preached did a fine job, linking Mark 13 to the new movie, 2012, which, judging from the trailer, has impressive special effects. The priest assured us the world will not end in late 2012, as suggested by, if I remember correctly, the Mayan Calendar; he knows that because astronomers have told the public there is nothing out there coming our way that could cause the demise of our fragile planet,  which is  good to hear.   In my recollection, today's homily concluded approximately where the selection from Mark's gospel does: the end is not yet.

 The music that accompanies the liturgy is, I am guessing, chosen by the choirmaster, and this morning some of it seemed to relate to Veterans Day, last Monday (which just occurred to me), or, as I thought this morning, to the appalling killing at Fort Hood, the most recent unforeseen tragedy that has recently presented itself.  Veterans Day makes a lot more sense, so I now understand why the final hymn was "Onward, Christian Soldiers." The problem with that hymn is that "the foe" is never identified in the text of the hymn, so "the foe" could be understood as anyone the US goverment wishes to demonize, whether the Japanese in the 1940's, or communism during the fifties and sixties, or Muslims today. So I decided I could live perfectly happily without joining in singing the recessional hymn, which was the only jarring note in church this morning. I feel really very lucky to be in Providence, where there is such a fine parish, with such gorgeous music.