Happy Lent!!!

Hello again my friends -

Well, since my last post Ginni has returned and so has Lent (totally unrelated I assure you).  Our surprise this Lent was a call from the Archbishop telling us he was sending us a priest - arriving on Tues before Ash Wed.  He will stay with us throughout the entire season of Lent and thru Easter.  To say we were surprised is an understatement.  We usually see a priest once every 6 weeks or so, now we'll have a resident priest every day for 7 weeks!

We got the news while we were in Nassau. Prior to going to Nassua we had two major events on our radar screen.  First, Ash Wed is an annual ecumenical service with the Anglicans on Andros and this year it is our turn to host.  Prior to going to Nassau I had put together the program and sent it off to the Anglican minister.  With a priest arriving the day before Ash Wed I would have to scramble to change the program (of which 60 copies had already been made), in order to add a role for the new priest.  Second, the Saturday after Ash Wed we were going to have a huge funeral, and those programs have already been printed by the funeral  home.  A funeral in the Bahamas is a BIG deal.  The deceased was in his 40s and died a tragic unexpected death in a car accident so the turnout was going to be more than the church could hold.  Since we did not plan on having a priest the program did not include Eucharist, but was a Service.  Who does what and how would need to change.

So we return to Andros and I crank out a new Ash Wed program for the Anglican priest, myself, & the visiting priest that modified who said and did what during the service.  The people followed along and the night was a huge success.  What was unfortunate was that the visiting priest wanted to wear a Cope for an ecumenical service like this (a Cope is a cape-like liturgical vestment) and, surprise surprise, we don't have that type of vestment.  It was upsetting for him and not the best way to start off our relationship especially when complicated by the added stress of the Anglican invasion filling the church at the same time.

Once we got thru Ash Wed we sat down with the program from the funeral home and marked it up so we agreed on my roles and his roles, both at the church and the cemetary.  Despite the hysterics of a Bahamian funeral this actually worked out pretty well and the funeral went off without a hitch.

Our new friend is a retired priest from Florida and clearly has his way of doing things, and we are adapting.  The biggest surprise for us was the weekend liturgy for the 1st Sunday of Lent.  It turns out that he finds the new Roman Missal difficult to navigate so - - he has transcribed the common parts of the liturgy onto a notebook computer and, for those parts of the liturgy, he scrolls through the liturgy using his notebook computer on the altar, complete with a wireless mouse.  Well, having a computer on the altar has set off a firestorm.  Comments from both people on the Navy Base & Bahamians have been fast and furious, critical of a computer on the altar that blocks the view of the people, the inappropriatness of it, the scandal, the sacrilidge, et. al.  (pray for me).

So on Monday, after having had an earful from people throughout the community, we asked if we could talk about a few things to plan the next 7 weeks of Lent and we tried to address the notebook.  It was a difficult conversation, but he agreed to consider the objection.  Clearly we need to reconcile this topic or, I am afraid, people may stop attending until he departs. 

The Archdiocese has always been very supportive of us here on Andros and, knowing that, I gave a call to the Vicar.  It was very helpful conversation for me and acted as a sort of relief valve for the stress I was feeling.  He was very supportive and, in the end, suggested we do our best and monitor the situation and see how it plays out, but to keep him informed.  We really do want to work well and be supportive of this man as we serve the people of Andros, but if this persists it will clearly be corrupting their Lenten season and will have a negative impact on our Easter celebration.  We pray that doesn't happen.

While this plays out, it is not all negative.  He has, in the past, hosted Teen Movie Nights and has brought several DVDs and the equipment to show them.  We want to plan a weekly viewing, followed by discussion and refreshments.  It sounds like he has had some success with this, and he has a plan, so we hope we can pull this off too - it really could be quite good.

So, all in all - despite a few bumps in the road we continue to work towards growing the Kingdom of God, and what kind of Lent would it be without a few bumps in the road.  Praise God for the bumps of Lent!
Keep us in your  prayers - we appreciate all your support.