Number 1017 and Number 13

Progressive Pragmatist and I are back from a trip to the big city cathedral. We fetched the rector and his wife at 7:30 this morning. After a quick stop at the local caffeine distributor, our car of 4 headed off to the recently opened, very convenient parking garage at the big city cathedral. Taking the rector's advice, we paid our parking fee before heading up the stairs to the street level.

The rector headed off to the Bethlehem Chapel to vest w/ the priestly types, the rector's wife hooked up with Susan and found the reserved seating section. PP and I tried to figure out which line the General Admission folks should stand in. I took a spot in the longest line while PP scouted out the shorter lines. Turns out, we GA types were allowed to stand in ANY of the 3 lines... the LONG line, the shorter line, or even at the door which still had NO line! So, we headed to the door on the left where we realized that there were actually 4 people (3 from Harrisonburg and one other lady) who were waiting, but didn't look like they were actually a "line." After PP and I took a place at the steps, those folks moved over and joined us. The one lady had a ticket marked "special." We moved her to the head of the line. The Harrisonburg folks were very nice. I turned to the "special" lady and asked her what had brought her to the the consecration service. Turns out she is a friend of the Johnston family. She said, "Shannon is very excited about today. Did I say Shannon is excited? Well his mother is positively levitating." Wow, it must be quite a day to have your son consecrated bishop!

The cathedral was lovely, PP and I sat in line with the space window. The procession included lots of familiar faces, the music was uplifting, the sermon was good. The presiding bishop spoke the words of consecration - I love her voice. It was inspiring to hear the words of the creed echoing through the nave. It was good to see so many people in their Sunday best gathered on a Saturday morning to witness the consecration of the 1017th American bishop who, in a few years, will be the 13th bishop of Virginia. The church is strong, we have purpose, we have history, we have future.

Photo of Bishop Shannon Johnston by Bob Burgess for the Virginia Episcopalian
Photo of Washington National Cathedral's Space Window by me!