[Magdalen] Greetings

[Jay Weigel]

I'm still not able to drive, and S/O not church-inclined, so I stayed home
and "went to church" via tv at Marble Collegiate in NYC. It was a lovely
service of lessons and carols and the sermon was excellent. I'm still
unhappy that our cable offerings don't include WGN so I could "attend" the
midnight mass at the RC cathedral. That was always a feature of our
Christmases in TN, my late ex and my choir buddy Sheila being
ex-RC....reveling in the choir offerings, checking out the way it was done,
and critiquing (sometimes trashing) the sermon. I really miss that.

On Tue, Dec 26, 2017 at 7:13 AM, Kristin Rollins <kristin at verumsolum.com>
wrote:

> It was a quiet Christmas here.
>
> We went to a former (and perhaps soon-to-be-again) parish, opting for
> their 8pm. My desire to rather be an hour early than five minutes late was
> a good thing. I think we arrived around 7:30 or 7:35 and as I passed the
> associate rector (who had hired me as an organist when he was the interim
> in another parish), he said to me "Good luck finding a seat." Fortunately,
> I had dropped Heather at the door a couple of minutes earlier, and she had
> secured seats for us. And during the first hymn, a folding chair was added
> in the aisle beside me.
>
> It was good to be in a familiar church with familiar people (One choir
> member gave Heather and I each a huge hug on the way out afterward.) And
> the music was well-led and good without being fussy. Though I can't comment
> too much on the anthem, my hearing of it being affected by an enthusiastic
> young child on the other side of Heather.
>
> Kristin
>
> --
>   Kristin Rollins
>   kristin at verumsolum.com
>   Chesapeake, VA
>
> On Tue, Dec 26, 2017, at 1:00 AM, sally.davies at gmail.com wrote:
> > First time we missed MM in many a year, but it's too difficult now we
> live
> > so far out of town. Keith played organ for Advent 4 at St Johns early on
> > Sunday morning...yesterday morning we attended a simple but joyful
> service
> > at the little farm chapel down the road, St Albans. Lovely carols, chosen
> > to be a bit different...Good Christian Men, Rejoice! ...and an absolute
> > favourite of mine, the Calypso Carol. I really love that.
> >
> > Retired priest came out to celebrate, our clergy here do not seem to
> retire
> > from that until they really are too frail to cope with it. His sermon
> > wandered sbout a bit, loosely organised around "Mary pondered all these
> > things and treasured them in her heart", a wonderful side note to the
> > Nativity story with a lot to offer a preacher.
> >
> > Then a busy day with food as my family came out here for lunch.
> >
> > Looking forward to a peaceful Boxing Day (known as Family Day here) then
> > it's back to work tomorrow
> >
> > Sally D
> >
> > On Tue, 26 Dec 2017 at 4:47 AM Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > > We had a fairly sparsely attended Advent 4 in the morning (about 17),
> but
> > > most of our folks came back. Our only service was 4:30, and we had
> about
> > > 100. Lots and lots of kids, pretty chaotic, lots of fun. I attended a
> 10 pm
> > > service at another church, and it was sparse, maybe 16.
> > >
> > > On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 7:30 PM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Our attendance at both services was about half of what it was last
> year,
> > > > and at least half of those at the second service were visitors or C&E
> > > > people.
> > > > Quite a few of our regular families were out of town. Also, we had
> one
> > > > morning service for Advent 4, and most of the folks who were there
> did
> > > not
> > > > come back in the evening. I wonder if that might have been the case
> in
> > > > other places.
> > > >
> > > > > On Dec 25, 2017, at 11:58 AM, P. Dan Brittain <
> pdan.brittain at gmail.com
> > > >
> > > > wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 9:56 AM, Mahoney, W. Michael <
> > > > wmmah at stoneledge.net>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >> A blessed Christmas to all.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Our midnight service was quite nice but sparsely attended.  It
> seems
> > > > that
> > > > >> it was only a few years ago that it would have been packed.  Are
> > > others
> > > > >> seeing the same trend?
> > > > >>
> > > > >
> > > > > ​We had about 100 this year vs 125 last year - but several
> families​
> > > were
> > > > > away on trips.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > Ann
> > >
> > > The Rev. Ann Markle
> > > Buffalo, NY
> > > www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com
> > >
>