 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Friday, July1, 2022 News from St Alban’s  BirthdaysWhile I was busy celebrating and writing about the episcopal election, several of us had birthdays. Elijah Cox turned 12 on June 25. Rocky Walker had a birthday on , June 29. And Eleanor Woosley celebrated hers yesterday, June 30. We thank God for all three of you and pray that you will continue to grow in wisdom and knowledge – and love. A question I received yesterday Paula Shepard wrote to ask me why we customarily require three bishops to consecrate a new one. Why can’t one do it? Isadore wrote: “The custom that a bishop should not be ordained by one bishop, but by all the provincial bishops, is known to have been instituted on account of heresies, and in order that the tyrannical authority of one person should not attempt anything contrary to the faith.” In ancient times, this practice served to limit the power of an individual bishop, and to prevent a rogue bishop from consecrating a cadre of bishops loyal to him. We now have many other ways to limit the power of any one bishop – including all the required proofs of fitness for office and approval of a bishops’ election from so many different groups. Still, the Presiding Bishop is still only one person, although he represents us all. To select several other bishops as co-consecrators is a way of visibly including the whole Church; you also noticed that another significant number of bishops participated, but not as official, invited co-consecrators, were present as well, and also laid hands on Jos. What we do we do together.  COVID numbers on the rise again Although if you are multiply vaccinated and boosted, and if you customarily wear a mask indoors in public places, you may still get sick. Minda Cox became ill on Sunday afternoon (she was NOT at church,) and tested positive on Monday. Her primary symptoms have been loss of appetite and extreme fatigue. Another friend whom many of you know, Dana Hacker got COVID apparently in the hospital where she had surgery, but it is more severe, including blood clots in her lungs; two weeks later she is still hospitalized. She, too, was vaccinated and boosted and always wore a mask. In order to protect everyone, I would like to urge you to again wear a mask indoors at St Albans for now. Little children do not need to do this, but since they can also now be vaccinated and boosted, I hope you will make sure they are. The Drought The Garden The national weather service and our local weather channels all are saying that we are officially in a drought. The temperatures have been moderate this week, but will rise again in July. This means that we will only water the tomatoes, peppers and other things that are currently growing in our garden. Fortunately, the torrential rains earlier in the season prevented us from planting the whole space. If the rains come later, we can have a fall garden. If not, we will simply harvest what we can, plow it under again, add manure and compost to help amend the soil, and wait until next spring. We will simply have to leave the hundreds of little trees to God’s mercy and hope most of them survive. Air conditioning in a hot, drought time is expensive. Very. If you use the building during the week, expect it to be warm. We will try to keep it cool for Sunday. |
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