by John Bouton 

        The Royal Wedding Conveyed Our Service's Beauty

Seekers of faith have seen Friday's royal wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton as a religious event with echoes of their own religious traditions. People from virtually every religious background attended the service. In an era of tension within the Anglican Communion, how reassuring it was to hear so many familiar words and hymns in an event that attracted more than 2 billion viewers worldwide. Driving to work instead of watching the service, I was particularly struck by hearing the words derived from the Book of Common Prayer on the radio. It was like being in church!

            According to the Episcopal Church USA, the Order of Service for the royal wedding followed the 1966 Book of Common Prayer. "Inside [Westminster A]bbey, the Very Rev. John Hall, dean of Westminster, conducted the service according to a 1966 version of the liturgy of matrimony from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, while Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, as head of the officially established Church of England, presided over the royal wedding and solemnized the marriage."  While the media made much of Kate's dress, the balcony kisses, and the cartwheeling verger, those of us married in the last half-century or so could find echoes of our prayer book's  "Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage," notably in the invocation of Jesus' first miracle at Cana, in the call to love one another, and in the promise of mutual joy and support.

            The music in this service also reinforced the familiar English we enjoy each Sunday. The words of the Introit - "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord," "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" and a variety of John Rutter anthems have all echoed beneath our vaulted ceilings at St. Paul's.

            Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, struggling to reconcile itself in America to a new missal, the language of which is to more closely mirror the original Latin, we are blessed to worship in our native tongue.  With our roots in the English following the Protestant Reformation - the King James Bible turns 400 this year - there is continuity and possibility in the inspiring language of our Book of Common Prayer.

            As the Most Rev. David Chillingworth, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, said in a statement, "Every wedding is a moment of hope and trust as people commit themselves to one another and to the unknown future." The same could be said for our own vocation as Episcopalians. Buoyed by the transformation of new life in ministry to one another, we can find solace and strength in the world's response to the beauty of our liturgies as shown at Westminster Abbey last week.

March Vestry Minutes    

The Vestry Meeting was held on March 15th, with all but two members present.  The members had received Committee Reports in advance of the meeting to review.  Doreen provided an oral report of the activities of the Communication Committee.

Valerie provided an overview and explanation of the Profit and Loss Budget Performance - February 2011, prepared on March 2, 2011 and distributed at the meeting.  There was concern expressed about the budget and it was decided to include a briefing and discussion on the budget at the Vestry Retreat.

There was discussion of the "Parochial Report" of the Parish which is to be submitted to the Diocese, and Kate reported that she and staff will be reviewing the records of "communicants in good standing" as the numbers affect our assessment to the Diocese.

Kate reported that Katie Solter had been approved to move to the next phase of discernment and is now a Candidate for Holy Orders.  There was discussion of the schedule for the Retreat.  Kate and four vestry members are to attend the Vestry Leadership Conference to be held on May 7.

We also discussed a Memorial Gift of Pew Candle Lights for the Choir Stalls in honor of Jeanine Taylor.  The Vestry voted to accept the proposed gift provided the installation was approved by the Building and Grounds Committee.

Prayer partners were chosen for the year by drawing names.  The vestry approved the Senior and Junior Wardens, the Treasurer and the Clerk as signatories on the St. Paul's accounts at TD Bank.

The Alcohol Policy adopted in 2006 was reaffirmed, with an amendment and restatement of the first paragraph. 

Casper Kranenburg, Senior Warden                                                Lee Waples, Junior Warden

by  Jeanine Taylor  

During Lent, people often give up chocolate - but this past Lent I took it up again!

One of the great things about Hospice House is the way the staff pays attention to the needs of the residents.  The list of food and drink that I can tolerate gets shorter every day, but I can drink ginger ale, and there is always a supply for me in the fridge.

One day, I had just started a new glass of ginger ale when Kate came to visit me.  The problem with fresh ginger ale is that it's really fizzy so I always get the hiccups when I take my first sip.  Well, the combination of the ginger ale and my hiccups prompted Kate to tell me about a bottle of ginger beer that she spotted when she was working in the food pantry.  It's not the kind of thing you usually see in the food pantry - it's an old-fashioned, non-fizzy variety of ginger ale and it even had an English factory address on its label!  Kate went on to say that nobody wanted the bottle of ginger beer but they gave out a lot of chocolate milk that morning.

"I used to love chocolate milk," I said.  "Well why don't you try some now?" Kate replied.  The next thing I knew, a nurse had brought me a glass of cold, freshly-mixed chocolate milk.  Did that ever taste good! And I was able to add chocolate milk to my list.

For a long time I have known that God gets involved in the smallest details of our lives.  God knows what we need, and if I needed chocolate milk, God was going to make sure I got it - even if it was the middle of Lent!  I am positive that God was in that chain of events, from the fresh ginger ale, to Kate's visit, to the hiccups, to the food pantry story, and finally to the glass of cold, refreshing chocolate milk that brightened up my day.

I first became aware of God's presence in my life in 1991 when my sister Harriet brought me to a service at St. Paul's.  As soon as I arrived, God opened my heart and I knew I had to keep coming.  I was baptized at the Easter Vigil in 1992 - and I was overwhelmed by the sense of joy God gave to me and my family on that amazing day. 

I continued to feel accompanied and supported by God.  God made me strong when I felt weak; God carried me when I didn't think I could face some of the challenges that came my way.  I became more and more confident that God was both with me and in me, through the good times as well as the bad times.  I knew that, whatever happened to me, I would get through it.

In March 2005, when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, my first thought was to go to church.  I knew that was where I would find the support I needed.  Harriet took me to St. Paul's, and I sat in the chapel and prayed, and cried, and asked, "Why?  Why me?"  And God reassured me that it was going to be OK.  God was present in the people who sat there in the chapel with me.  I had a feeling deep within me, a certainty that I would not bear this burden alone.

Since that day I have had six years of ups and downs - of every emotion possible.  I have been through the stages of grief - denial, anger, depression and acceptance - because cancer represents loss.  You grieve because you're losing time on this earth, with people you love, and because you're missing out on things you wanted to do.  But then the acceptance comes, the understanding that this is the way life is going to be.  And that's when I began to live day by day - moment by moment - knowing that God is supporting me and will never leave my side. 

Everybody has their own way of identifying God's presence in their life.  It won't be the same for everyone, but in my experience, God cares for us so much that he even takes care of the simple pleasures - like a glass of chocolate milk.

I'm afraid of dying - of the process of dying, because I don't know what that's going to be like.  It's a fear of the unknown.  But I am not afraid of death.  I know that death will be a joyful experience because I will be home with God.

© St. Paul's Church, 2011. Next Newsletter: June 1; deadline for submissions: May 28.  Please do not reprint text or graphics without permission.