After a late and satisfying meal on Saturday night, John Berry set the stage for Sunday morning: Lights on at 7:00 AM, in the cars by 8:00 AM, because Church starts at 9:00 AM in St. Paul at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. And it worked exactly that way! The mission trip started smooth and ended smooth. Yes!
St. Marks is a small church, built in the 1960s, with room for 180 people. The congregation is now very small. We saw perhaps 10 congregants, not including us. John was told there are 16 regular communicants, mostly older and we saw a mailing list with about 50 names on it. The priest (Rev. Robert Beauchamp [pronounced 'beech-um']) also serves All Saints parish in nearby Norton, where he lives.
The service was enjoyable and the sermon was interesting. I have to report that the sermon linked a search for the Kingdom of God with a vacation trip to Washington, DC. The Kingdom of God was *not* evident during that part of the vacation, or the drive up. Also interesting: we got to sing a few hymns we don’t often hear at Grace (#48, 453 and 530) at least I don’t remember singing them before. Also, this was one church where it was manageable to pass the peace with everyone in the congregation. Almost everyone; One little girl would not shake my hand.
After the service we were served a lovely breakfast in the parish hall under the church. Diced potatoes with cheese, scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage biscuits (some storebought, some not), cheese grits, pineapple cake, german chocolate cake, coffee and juice. We found out Rev. Beauchamp’s Dad graduated from West Point in 1953. Also, that these are nice people. And, after eating, the one little girl finally did shake my hand.
Trip home, powered by the excellent breakfast, was faster than our trip up .. something like 6 and a half hours with one stop for sodas and gas (for our car). Many slept, but there was lots of time for sharing our life stories after spending a few days often focused on the details of construction, painting and dorm management.
