A Really Big Shoe

On the eve of Advent IV I climbed up to Lamburnite's manse high above the North River for dinner, with W and S also in attendance. As we dined on the exquisite house cassoulet we discussed our collective fondness for the shrine church we attend, and since Lamburnite is about to enter the fray for a seat on the vestry we also necessarily discussed the current political climate and that vision thing. It seems there are a few visions for the future of our beloved parish currently floating around and some of them don't look anything like the church we have come to love. My crystal ball is a little hazy right now, so I won't presume to say which will win the day, but I would hope to assure you, dear friends, that "safe is our confiding, for nothing changes here!"

W told me about the first time they came to church there, he felt like he was slipping into an old familiar shoe, a really big shoe, and also a really big shew in the Ed Sullivan sense. We wondered why anyone would come to church there if they weren't comfortable with the shoe the way it fits now. I suppose they are within their rights to suggest an alteration, but in my experience most shoes don't take very well to change. They can be stretched a little but their essential shape is not going to go very far from the original without destroying the shoe.

It was still a glorious Ignatian Christmas amid all the turmoil. The sacristy rats and assorted elves had the place looking fabulous and Doug and the choir were absolutely wonderful. On Christmas Eve for the Midnight Mass they sang the Missa 'Noe Noe' by Pierre de Manchicourt, including the Credo which seemed to go on forever, albeit gloriously. I was blessedly just a torch so I could relax for most of the service. I got a bit too relaxed during the Credo, however, and almost fell over when we had to get up and genuflect for the Incarnatus est. That was a good wakeup call. Should not have had that second glass of Merlot at Bob's Christmas dinner! When we processed the bambino to the creche at the beginning, I had us kneel down when we first got there, forgetting that we still had to get through Silent Night, so the old knees were aching by the time we got up. But we had a great crowd for the first time in many years, probably thanks in large part to Doug's putting up a banner outside advertising the services. They seemed to be mostly visitors in fact, with a lot of the regulars out of town or planning to wait until tomorrow. But we don't expect much in the way of offering on Christmas, since most visitors tend to put in a dollar bill and that's about it. We do live in hope, however.

Christmas Day was a pretty good crowd also. I didn't get much sleep but somehow got up and was subdeacon for the Solemn Mass, which featured the wonderful Palestrina Missa 'Hodie Christus natus est'. We were all dead tired, but the only mishap was one of the candles on the high altar ejected its follower during the Gospel and green wax (from the copper) got spilled all over the newly laundered altar linen. Other than that it was a really good shew and the Lord was truly glorified, I do believe. It was a rainy Christmas Day and many buts are up in the air, however it was a blessed day of thanksgiving and praise for Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Oh come, let us adore Him!

A Gloomy Rose Sunday

Actually things didn't get gloomy until coffee hour (after the service here!). I showed up right at the Angelus so was safe from being asked to fill in for any missing servers. The Zabriskie pew was waiting, of all mercies still unoccupied since Marjorie was sitting with Ana, whose first communion it was. (It's always a small and blessed miracle on those days when Marjorie isn't already sitting there and I'm not serving that I get to sit in my favorite pew and enjoy the service as a member of the congo.) And blessedly also SrT was not in the pew behind groaning along with the choir. The Lord indeed seemed to be full of mercy this Rose Sunday.

Then as I was preparing to depart a suitably refreshing coffee hour for a traditional Rose Sunday 3-Mimosa brunch, I was nabbed by the Junior Warden, who had a thing or two to inquire. It seems an important member of the church family has gone off in a huff and she wanted to know what I knew about it and when. I didn't know much but I guess I said something that summoned up a further revelation from her that this was all portentous of something much more ominous. This something is no less than the Solemn Mass and our traditional mass settings sung by our wonderful choir itself being put to question by our current junior and senior wardens. They believe we must drastically reduce our budget for next year and the best way to do it is cutting out the paid choir for most of the year. Our excellent professional choir and organist do account for a significant chunk of money but I believe if we do that we may as well say we've given up and close the place because these are two of the things that are so special about St. Ignatius. Yesterday they sang the beautiful Brahms Missa Canonica, which was just glorious, and Gibbons' This is the record of John as the anthem. We have just been hearing mass settings from the classical and romantic eras for the first time under our wonderful new (as of two years ago) choirmaster since our previous one hardly ever got out of the 15th century. I can't imagine an 11:00 am Sunday service without our choir and the "sacristy queens" putting on their fabulous show with those fabulous falling apart at the seams, 80-year-old vestments.

Unfortunately we have two very low church wardens for the forseeable future and they would love to steer St. Ignatius down that slippery slope that St. Mary's has slidden into the slough of the broad church. They don't understand the purpose of "dressing up and putting on a show" as I was shocked to hear the junior warden say. She's right that it's not all about putting on a good show, but it is partly that. This is New York after all and just off Broadway. I'm sure some people don't need all the sensory aids that we provide and I say to these people, there are churches aplenty where you will fit in just fine. Just don't go trying to change everything we've been for the past 135 years. As if! And she had the nerve to say if I'm not part of the solution, I'll be part of the problem. Honey, you haven't seen a problem like the problem you're gonna see here.

I was so shocked to hear all this from a women I used to like alot, I didn't know quite what to say but I made my exit and got down to that mimosa in a very gloomy mood. I was quietly pondering how best to begin marshalling troops for the coming battles so after brunch we went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is pretty well done and seemed an especially apt allegory this day. I couldn't believe with the hundreds of kids in the theater, it was so quiet you could hear every line!

I had a good chat with the rector this evening and he was a little surprised to hear about all this. The rector is always the last to know, he always says. But I think things will be unchanged for this year anyway. We'll find the money somehow to keep the show going, at least for a little while longer, so catch it while you can!

A Sunny Advent I With Flowers

Gilberto and I shrugged off our Sunday morning hangovers and hit the road for Austin early with a fairly clear road, a beautful sunny sky and Jesus Take the Wheel coming on every time we switched the dial. We sailed onto 7th Street and into the St. David parking garage (which is free!) in time for the 11:15 am Rite I Holy Eucharist in their Historic Sanctuary. St. David's, completed in 1854, is believed to be the oldest Episcopal Church building in constant use west of the Mississippi. It has grown from a small parish that was split for 3 years during the Civil War to a thriving urban ministry center with $1.5 million in pledges this year.

We were spotted as visitors when we came in and given a notebook filled with information about St. David's and all its ministries and activities. We were hoping for a higher service since it was Rite I but alas, no smells or bells, and there were flowers on the freestanding altar, which sported a purple superfrontal. I've never been a fan of those shorty frontals. They just look like you couldn't afford a full one. The Rev. Mary Vano greeted everyone before the entrance hymn Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending and insisted that we greet our neighbors. We did so in the simple New York style. I was just thankful she didn't insist that all the visitors introduce themselves. Then the procession began with the rector, the Rev. David Boyd, gladhanding his way down the aisle. The service then continued with the Word of God. They have a decent choir, which is mostly amateur, and a serviceable organist. The Rev. Vano gave a pretty good sermon on how she's given up on complaining about how commercial the season has become. She's going with the flow this year and has actually been finding that Christ is with us even when all we want to do is shop till we drop. Go figure.

After the service we made our way over to the Paradise Cafe on 6th Street since there was no coffee or anything else on offer and no one except one of the choir members stopped to talk to us as we made our way around taking pictures. St. David's has a Cafe Divine that serves breakfast on Sunday until 10:45 am and then nothing afterward, which we found odd. We walked by there on the way in to the Sanctuary and there were lots of people. Apparently they have breakfast together and then go to Mass. So much for fasting communion. At any rate we enjoyed walking around their spacious plant, which includes a labyrinth in a courtyard, on our way out and over to 6th Street for lunch which was bustling with the Pecan Festival and baking in the midday Texas sun.

We headed on back north on I-35, stopping by the family plot in Wilson Valley to pay our respects. It took quite a while to get back to Arlington with all the holiday traffic but we finally made it and then headed over to Ft. Worth with Charles and Marisa for our last supper at Joe T. Garcia's. No trip to Texas would be complete without a trip to Joe T.'s (http://www.joets.com/)
for an enchilda dinner. A perfect end to a wonderful trip.

Saturday Night in Luckenbach

This time last Saturday night we were on our way to the High Church of Hill Country Honky Tonk, Luckenbach, Texas, after finding a room and a delicious German dinner at Der Auslander in Fredericksburg. As much as the past is always present in San Antonio, you could say that Luckenbach is a place where time seems to have stood still for the past 150 years or so. Last time we tried to visit it was during the great flood of 2002 when the roads were flooded and the cotton mill was lost, so it was good to see that the rest of the town was spared. The famous old dance hall still looks the same and that timeless feeling has not been altered by any modern progress, thank you Jesus.

Gilberto was not feeling well (can't imagine why after 5 days of Texas food) so we didn't try to dance, but it was fun just watching and listening. Geronimo Trevino's band was cooking and the dancing was fabulous. I still have trouble with the Two Step so I'm glad I didn't get up and embarrass myself, but it was a bit chilly to just sit since they had opened four of the big windows. I went out and warmed up by the big fire going over by the bar, had a couple of Shiners and almost got drunk enough to buy a turquoise cowgirl hat in the General Store. They don't take anything but cash in Luckenbach so I guess that was all for the best. I'm not sure I would wear it very much in New York City. I did buy a red bandana with a Lone Star clasp so I'm making progress on my cowgirl outfit. The Luchesse 2000 boots drew some approving glances. But I do need a hat. And turqouise is rather rare, so said the Hondo Crouch lookalike hat salesman. I was going to try and jaw him down ala New York but somehow that's not my style. "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it," they say in Texas. So I wandered on back to the Dance Hall and found Gilberto dozing in the corner. We had to get up early to drive to Austin for church so we left after the second set, after hearing What I Like About Texas. Hee-Haa!