Sunday – Rock and Roll Pastor, Plumbing Problems and a Photo Excursion

| August 1, 2021 | 0 Comments

The Sunday service at St. Michael’s Church outside Santa Barbara could not have been a greater contrast from the previous Sunday’s service at St. John’s Armenian Church in San Francisco. Frankly, it’s one of the coolest aspects of Fuller Center rides is experiencing the variety of ways Americans worship. That said, what struck me most is that the two pastors we actually so much alike. Both handsome young men in their 30’s. Both avid bikers. Both very much men of the 21st century in their private lives. But they were very different when they took to their respective altars.

The priest at St. John’s wore ancient vestments and conducted the service in Armenian. As noted before, it was an extremely formal ceremony, probably conducted the same way it was in the 15th century. It was so formal that I don’t have a picture. I tried to sneak a picture, but it didn’t come out.

Thing were different at St. Mike’s.

At St. Mike’s we had access to two toilets and one shower for 20 people. We were warned when we arrived that drainage was a problem, so showers had to be spaced 15 minutes apart. Notwithstanding our compliance with that rule, one of the toilets backed up. Fortunately, our team leader, Tim, stepped into the breach and spent the whole day dealing with the crisis. Either up to his elbows in toilet water or on the phone with various plumbing companies. He was promised a service call in 30 minutes, three hours later, nothing. Finally, one of the riders, a tough talking 80 year old commercial real estate agent (that’s right, 80 years old!) called a buddy in New Jersey who “knew a guy.” A plumber finally showed up, snaked the pipes and fixed it.

I spent the afternoon on a photo excursion to Devereaux Slough, a marshy area about a mile from the church. Got some good pictures of egrets and the seashore. Still trying to process the photos so will post later.

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