Last night's All Saints Evensong was absolutely glorious. I heard a couple of minor mistakes but Mike said it was not noticable from where he was sitting. We had a better than average crowd for this nighttime event - the choir was outnumbered by the congregation, the seen and the unseen - "For in the multitude of your saints you have sur-rounded us with a great cloud of wit-nesses..." (Painting: Passage of the Souls by Anne Francois Louis Janmont 1814-1892) For all the saints, who from their labors rest...

We should have practiced our Preces and Responses with Molly, who was officiating and trying her best to stay on pitch, but she had no accompaniment, so she got off track pretty bad a couple of times. With the choir depending on her for our pitch it was impossible to get it right. We found some "lost chords" that should have stayed lost. She felt really bad about "messing up" and stood at the exit apologizing to choir members as we filed out. I hugged her and laughed and told her she was very brave to have even attempted it. If she were trained as a musician, I might have felt differently, but she isn't.

David's postlude was majestic and earned a well-deserved, hearty round of applause. Microphones were set up for recording. I'm hoping we can link to it on the church's website or at the MPB site. I'll post it here when/if it becomes available.

We baptized two precious babies at the morning service. It's my very favorite church ceremony. It requires the participation and support of the whole congregation in a way that must be very encouraging to young parents. Scroll down to p. 298 to read the liturgy at this link. http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/bcpspecl.txt

According to the news this morning, Ted Haggard was fired by the board investigating the allegations against him. In a letter that was read to the congregation yesterday, he said: The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life. At least, he didn't stage a Jimmy Swaggart spectacle.

Ted Haggard was rather progressive in some of his beliefs, such as insisting that Christians take global warming seriously. He hosted an Ecumenical community service that included a Gay choir and would not revoke his invitation to them even after some of the other churches refused to participate because of that. My guess is that he, in private, has been inching toward the truth concerning his sexuality, based more on recent medical research than on the antiquated thinking of centuries old convention. I pray that as Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Problem is, he will have to give up the personality cult that has built up around him. There are no mega churches over here where he can gain a huge audience for bashing homosexuals, or politic for outlawing their rights. It will be interesting to see if he attempts regressive or progressive recovery from his dilemma. Most of his followers are praying for the former, I'm sure. Maybe God will use him to lead them into the 21st century. That's what I'm praying.