Sunday in San Francisco – Free Day, Armenian Mass, Lunch with Dan, Visit to the Wharf

Typically, the riders attend the service for the church that hosts us on Sundays. So, I got to attend an Armenian Orthodox service. It was something. Like going to a pre-Vatican II Catholic Mass only more inscrutable.

The pastor of the church visited the riders before the service. He was a gregarious young man, probably in this thirties. We thanked him for the hospitality and he thanked us for our social action. Turns out that Fuller Center has built some houses for the poor in Armenia.

The next time I saw him on the altar decked in full religious regalia, baby blue vestments with a tall cylindrical hat.

Short version:

The service took 2 hours, all but about 10 minutes in Armenian. The altar is old school Catholic in which the priest has his back to the congregation. And to reinforce the secondary role of the congregation as compared to the clergy, there’s a big curtain that goes across the front of the altar hiding the priest and deacons. it was done three times during the service. Who knows what was going on behind the curtain?

After Mass, I had lunch with my old pal, Dan Baxter, from FleishmanHillard. He’s the same as he always was, urbane, smart, funny and very opinionated.

I walked about 2 miles from our lunch spot to San Francisco and it was packed, really packed. Either the pandemic is over, or it’s gonna start up again….big time.

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