David goes to church

Okay, so I do that all the time, but today I went to the SHAPE chapel to worship with the mixed Anglican-Episcopal crowd. It was actually pretty nice. I felt like I had worshipped. The priest, "Padre Bob," is a British Army chaplain. He's no Andy Lunt, but he's got the British thing going, and he was relaxed and as informal as a guy with that accent and wearing those robes can be. I think the pianist was an American. She's no Eric Sayers, but she was good and did a nice medley of "Amazing Grace" and another old favorite that I forget now. We sang "Morning Has Broken" and three praise hymns, albeit the kind with actual theology in them. And we sang all the verses. The hymnal is the British thing with no music printed. No choir, but I heard a couple of good male voices in the crowd, including the pianist's husband.

There were only two or three dozen people there, but it's "half term" at the schools. It was also Family Sunday, so the kids were all in worship instead of SS, the liturgy had been toned down a bit, and the sermon was pitched pretty much at the kids (inspired by my dear, departed Uncle Dan, I timed it: 13 minutes). We had coffee afterwards, and about a half dozen people went out of their way to speak to me, including the "sidesman." (No, not a jazz dummer; that's a sideman. This is an usher.) They have a little laity participation: a lay reader did the OT, and a British airman and his Catholic wife did the prayers of petition. It seems to be a reasonably active parish. I think I could handle 3 years here.