The Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

"Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much."

I kept the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene yesterday at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue. They did a rather modified version of Solemn Mass, with three sacred ministers including a proper lay subdeacon who sang the epistle. They had a crucifer but no candles or torches and the thurifer only appeared at the offertory and left after the rather dramatic censing of the congo. BG and I were sitting about half way back and I barely got a whiff of what seemed to be a Holy Cross blend, not bad but not enough of it to either offend or delight. I was surprised to see a female attendant who did acolyte duties so perhaps that bit of discrimination is slowly dying. The rector was on vacation so Canon Andrew held forth as of olden days, giving one of his classic sermons from the late 1990s on St. Mary Magdalen and updating it with a short tirade on current affairs in the Anglican Communion. It was good to see him looking very hale and feisty. The visiting choir from the Rochester Third Presbyterian Church was splendid in the mass settings from various modern sources. Afterward the fellowship upstairs consisted of only liquid, no munchies of any sort, not even a crust of bread, which seemed rather strange, but the iced tea was very refreshing. BG opted for a Bloody Mary and then we headed down to 26th Street to the High Church of Hill Country Barbecue, the long-awaited oasis of "real" Texas barbecue here in Manhattan. After a delicious brisket sandwich and Kreuz margarita, we decided to head to the beach. A couple of hours later we were basking in a perfect day at Jones Beach and watching the gorgeous and humongous sea birds frolic in the surf. We ended up at the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria but it was way too smokey for me (people actually smoking cigarettes, how primitive!) and the Czech food was not that great, although the pitcher of beer was quite adequate.

In other journeys I also visited St. Mark's in the Bowery on the last Sunday in June. Fr. Denaro led a rather unique celebration of the eucharist after the "UnWedding" of four gay couples, which was actually a blessing of their unions, albeit not legally binding. The service started with a drag queen in a red tutu singing or rather croaking some show tune and then some rather obscure readings followed by more show tunes. Then there was a long speech made by a woman who got up to "protest" the joining of the couples by demanding that everyone everywhere in any sort of committed relationship be able to marry or no one should. Fr. Denaro then blessed the unions and after the exchange of vows and tokens there was a champagne toast and exchange of the peace which lasted about half an hour. Then most of the crowd left and the eucharist proceeded with about 30 people, many of whom seemed to be visitors. A light projected a simple white cross on the "stage" and the altar was a round table on the floor in the midst of the circle of people, with a rainbow altar cloth and rainbow vestments for all. They have a decent band and choir even without Kathy, and they belted out my favorite gay anthem, "I Am What I Am", at the offertory. The Body as pita bread and the Chalice were sent around the circle and Gilberto didn't bat an eye as he handed them to me.

Two weeks ago we visited Good Shepherd and were happy to see Fr. Carlson doing well there and aided by a couple of former St. Marians. Next Sunday we are planning to go up to Intercession and see what form of "Solemn Mass" they do. Stay tuned and keep praying. The search committee is narrowing the field down to three this week!