Icing on the Cake

It has been a fun day here in West Missouri.  Today by God's grace and with God's people gathered, Martin Scott Field was ordained the eighth Bishop of West Missouri.  It was, or course, quite a service.  The ordination of a bishop is not something we experience that often (okay, well, bishops do; but not most of us) because our diocesan bishops are, by and large, pretty healthy and serve for a while.  So, it is a rare and exciting event.  But, then, we do grand ceremony like nobody else.

For me personally, too, it was a great day, at least as an Episcopal blogger.  George Clifford, who blogs at Ethical Musings, and who is with me a regular contributor at the Episcopal Cafe, was the preacher.  He knew Bishop Field when both were Navy Chaplains together.  Indeed, I met George because of his Navy chaplaincy.  He and I worked in several General Conventions tracking resolutions for Bishop George Packard, then Bishop of Federal Chaplaincies (which is the current title of the office).

And after the service, I heard a voice: "Aren't you Marshall?"  Lisa Fox of My Manner of Life and Maria Evans of Kirkepiscatoid had come to Kansas City for the celebration.  Both are in Missouri (although in the other diocese), and so were able to make the trip for the day.  As happens with bloggers, we've read each other's stuff.  We just haven't had the chance to meet.

That's the way it can be, really: we live in our own places, and put our thoughts out there for everyone to share.  But, living in our separate places - and perhaps more so here in the middle of the country - we Episcopal bloggers don't often gather.  It was a nice addition to a good day to be able to share it with colleagues who, like me, want to reflect on, among other things, the joys (and occasional frustrations) of life in the Episcopal Church.