Weekend Update 11/14/25
Saying Goodbye to Old Friends
This is a busy weekend for our parish. Nativity Lent begins on Saturday, and we are also hosting what we hope will be our first annual Local Artist’s Fair. But since the next phase of our parking lot expansion is set to begin during the coming week, we’re also going to make some time to say goodbye to some good friends.
That’s because, to make room for those forty-five new parking spaces, we’re going to have to cut down at least seventeen trees.
And, if you’ve been following Our Greener Than Oz series of posts you know that’s a loss we take very seriously. Because we’ve had a relationship with those trees for twenty-two years: our children have played under them and on them; we used to have a community garden out there; we have processed through them and stood by them to sing when we have Blessed the Bounds; I’ve practiced more than a few homilies while standing in their shade.
So, they truly are old friends, and we’re not going to let them go without a blessing.
I teach the middle and high school girls Church School class; after Fellowship Hour, the young ladies and I will take some blessed oil and walk back there amongst the trees; we’ll offer the Trisagion Prayers, and then we’ll anoint each of those creatures in preparation for that day when we will again be able to walk among them in the New Jerusalem beside “the river of the water of life” when their leaves will be healing and their branches will bear fruit twelve-fold (Revelation 22.1-2).
And, absolutely, we’re going to be tree-hugging, but, you know, we’re also going to be following the example of The Original Tree Hugger.
Meeting New Friends
As many of you will remember, this is also the weekend when Dr. Andrew Richardson will be with us.
He’s the lead archaeologist on the team that authenticated the relics of St Eanswythe of Folkestone, the patroness of our building program. Father Andrew Wilson has spent time with Andrew over in the UK, but this is the first opportunity that most of us have had to meet him.
And we’re looking forward to it. Andrew plans on joining us for the Divine Services this weekend, and he’ll also be speaking twice: on Sunday, November 16, at 1pm, he will make a 30-45 minute presentation about his work with Our Favorite Anglo-Saxon Princess, and on Monday, November 17, he will have an hour-long presentation about All Things Eanswythe.
We hope you can join us for Andrew’s talks. Of course, you’re also welcome to participate in the services with us this weekend, and you can even join us under the trees on the backside of our five acres as we bless all our old friends.
But if you can’t make it in person and this sounds like the kind of community you’d like to support, then please go ahead and sign up for a paid subscription or make a direct donation to our new temple fund.
And, since we’re thinking about the kingdom and our friends and the temple that’s going to bring all that together, we’ll leave you with an old gospel favorite.