A Baptism in the Garden

I may be wrong, but I think Sunday was a first for St. John's. Services were held outdoors in the garden; nothing new about that, but Hideo, the latest addition to the St. John's family, was baptised during the second service. And if an outdoor baptism is not unusual enough for Episcopalians, the second service music, provided by a great combo comprised of parishioners and their friends, took us "down in the river to pray."

The weather was beautiful, if a little windy. Here are some scenes from the service. In her sermon, Kara talked about how adding a movie to the family's Netflix queue eventually led to an evening of introspection about what it means to be a Christian. An appropriate subject when welcoming a new Episcopalian!

Then, the baptism!





Throughout the service, music was supplied by folks the bulletin identified as the Gospel on the Green Folk Band.


My guess is Kara had more to do with that name than the group. Just a guess.

Parishioners Rawl, Dawn, Alex, Tim, his wife Catherine, and their friend Scott provided some beautiful music for us. It's hard to record unamplified music from 50 feet away on a windy day, with planes flying overhead and the collection being taken, but here's what it was like from the top of a ladder:



If you click on the video after it starts, it will reopen in a larger format.

By the time we got to "I'll Fly Away," we had discovered our inner Baptist, and were singing our hearts out. I had to post it despite the 30 seconds of camera shake as I moved up and down the ladder. Just close your eyes and listen.



Now wasn't that nice? I'm kicking myself for only catching a minute of it.