Cyber Prayer
February 24, 2008
An odd thing about being on sabbatical is not knowing where you’ll be going to church come Sunday morning. Last night I basically took out the Yellow Pages to figure this out. Okay, I wasn’t so desperate that I consulted the phone book — I know the local Episcopal churches. But I did have to check the web page for service times. I settled on St. Barnabas in Irvington http://www.stbarnabaschurch.org/. Although I’ve passed the church a slew of times — it’s about 20 minutes away on a major thoroughfare — I’ve never had occasion to go inside. Charlie Colwell, the rector, is a very gentle and learned man. He’s the longest serving rector in the Diocese of New York having started at St. Barnabas in 1972; he recently announced his impending retirement.
It was great to be back in an Episcopal church after a two-week hiatus. A good reminder that you can quite literally hunger for the sacrament when you go without it.
I snuck in for the 8 o’clock service alone since Bryna had to leave soon after to go into NYC. I couldn’t drag the boys out with me at that hour without waking up the neighborhood. But before taking them out to brunch we did a little cyber worship. I found an online Stations of the Cross appropriate for kids http://frpat.com/stations.htmand they took turns reading the stations (without crucifying one another). We concluded our devotions by clicking onto one of Matthew Moretz’s great youtube videos — the one on Baptism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLBRujWQc6c. They got a kick out this! Especially Fr. Matthew’s touchdown sequence (you’ll just have to watch it). And 15 minutes later we were enjoying “Coffee Hour” at The Patio.
February 29, 2008 at 6:24 am
I like that one too! Can you guess my involvement? drc
February 29, 2008 at 10:30 am
Well, let’s see…since your name shows up VERY prominently in the credits, I’d say you tossed Matthew the football. Oh, and perhaps helped set up for the “baptism.”