I Cover the Waterfront

St. Joseph of Arimathea and Our Lord landing in Britain

I always think of today, July 31, as the Feast of St. Joseph of Arimathea, although most calendars now have him tomorrow and the Romans I think have August 31. I've always loved the legend of him taking young Jesus over to Glastonbury with him on a tin trading mission and letting him stay there a few years among the Druids as part of his "lost years". Then, all those years later, after being thrown in prison when Our Lord disappeared from his tomb, Joseph was visited by Jesus and given the mission of taking the Holy Grail to Glastonbury and starting the first church there. I think it would make a great opera and hope to get down to work on that one day soon.

Meantime, work goes on at the shrine church of St. Ignatius, and the outside of the north wall is almost done being repointed, waterproofed and cleaned. I went up on the scaffolding with our architect to survey some of the roof problems and that was interesting if more than a bit scary (not to mention illegal). We discovered the source of our narthex and dungeon waterfalls to be some missing bricks in the party wall with The Boulevard so that alone was worth the trip. Now if we can just get them to help with the repairs we can perhaps even start using that corner of the dungeon again.

There were so many logistical problems with the interior cleaning phase that we decided to just continue working on the exterior instead, so the west wall will be done next along with some critical roof repairs, including leaks in the apartment roof and the copper flashing above the organ pipe chamber. Hopefully when we are through all the current waterproofing problems will be cured. Then we can start planning for the interior cleaning, which I hope will be done in my lifetime.

I've been rereading some of Barbara Pym's novels this summer and many days feeling like a character out of one of them. Some day I may write a book about all the characters I've known at St. Ignatius, perhaps a roman a clef to protect the innocent. We've said goodbye to several good parishioners this year and a few have just disappeared. One died, one got married, a few are still mad about something or other, one went back over to Rome, one moved to North Carolina, one moved to Ohio, one is moving to DC, one lost his mind and another just sank into a very deep slough of despond. I miss them all, believe it or not, but hope we start getting some new faces this Fall. We're getting a Deacon (a real one) in September, the Rev. Paul Kahn, lately at Good Shepherd, so that should liven things up.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?