My First Sunday at Christ Church

When the congregation of Christ church gathered for worship yesterday, Sunday March 25, we began by singing one of my very favorite hymns (I joke about my 'top forty' favorite hymns).  Hymn #304 has a great text by the modern English hymnodist Brian Wren.  The third stanza:

As Christ breaks bread and bids us share,
each proud division ends. 
That love that made us makes us one,
and strangers now are friends.

By the end of the morning, that was certainly how I felt: people who had been strangers to me at the beginning of the day had become friends. 

This is the altar at Christ Church.  On my right is The Rev. Martha Jordan, who is one of the three priest associates.  On my left is The Rev. George Gumler, deacon.  I am wearing one of the parish's chasubles which is made out of a sort of rustic woven fabric. 

I was told that the congregation that showed up was larger by more than 50% than they were accustomed to seeing.  I call this the 'zoo effect'-- i.e let's all go and see this new animal.  They seem to have liked what they saw and heard, since I did receive much positive feecback about the sermon. 

I also invited the children forward at announcement time (which they do at the END of the service at Christ Church) for a little talk with them.  They had made a welcome poster in their Sunday School class which they presented to me. 

After the service, there was a lavish coffee hour, with some elegant refreshments -- actually I shouldn't call it coffee hour since they also had wine for the special occasion of my arrival.  There was also quiche, seafood mouse, cheese and crackers, finger sandwiches and other assorted stuff.  It was quite a welcome. 

The Spanish-language service followed at 12:30 service, and I was told that the attendance for that service was almost double what they were accustomed to. 

I am joking that they won't be sending me back the the US after all, so I guess I'll unpack and stay a while.