Reverend Ref +

WHAT A WEEKEND

We arrived home safely yesterday afternoon. Heather's ordination was really nice. The Western Michigan cathedral has the look of a medieval castle, very imposing (sorry, couldn't find a pic). As we drove up I half expected a group of Monty Python knights to begin launching rabbits at us from the turrets. And a fellow guest remarked, "There's alot of concrete here;" and I wondered if the altar party ever wore roller-blades. My wife took a TON of pictures during the service (getting permission beforehand). You can see a few other pictures that someone else took here.

One of the best parts of the service was when my wife "shushed" the preacher. He mentioned something about the GOE in his sermon and she went, "Shush!!" Several people around us heard her, and it was quite entertaining. The other best part was simply being there. Part of it was watching a good friend being ordained, and part of it was projecting my own ordination onto the service.

From there we headed east to Pennsylvania for Mark's ordination to the priesthood. We had a little problem with snow coming out of Michigan, but nothing terrible. We had a wonderful host who cooked dinner, made breakfast, took us out for a good breakfast before we left town, and sent us on our way with a box of apples, cider, grapes, beef and roast. If you've seen the apartment, where do we put it all?

Mark's ordination was also really good. My wife read the OT lesson (and did a terrific job, I might add) and took a TON MORE pictures. Sorry, no link to these from this low-tech site; however, this is the church where he was ordained and is working. The above mentioned, newly ordained Heather was the deacon for the service. She didn't let nerves get to her and did fine. The most important thing I learned from this service: Make sure to list the bishop on the ordo.

After all of that I was very tired. It was all good, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of my friends ordained. Congratulations also to Linda English, George Davinich and the Chicago5 (Kara Wagner-Sherer, George Smith, and 3 others I forget -- sorry) on their ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood.

And yes, there was alot of red.

Peace