For the past few months we have been going to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in south Minneapolis. Wonderful priest and a great community, but we have reluctantly concluded that it is a church too far–even before the I-35W Bridge collapse complicated all of our life beyond the river. So today we went to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Saint Paul, which we had heard was rather similar. Today they observed their patronalmatronal feast (officially Aug. 15–Roman Catholics will recognize the date). The Rector gave the most dynamic sermon I have heard in years, without notes. I suspect Archbishop Akinola would not have approved of what she said, but he was not there, and I loved the archaeological references. The liturgy had some very modern elements, and some very traditional music. St. Mary’s looks really good to me.

After Church we continued our southward journey, ending up on Harriet Island for the Irish Fair. I had worked there yesterday and had a good time, but today was a chance to enjoy it with Mia. We did a little basic Irish dancing, then when to listen to the Giggin’ Síles sing. Lovely, but the background noise from the Fair was a real problem. We stopped by the Gaeltacht Minnesota table and had a nice chat with haddayr and did a little shopping, then went to Ross Sutter’s concert before leaving.

Feeling some time pressure because of a colgaffneyis Staff meeting in Minneapolis, we left the Fair promptly at 3 PM. We actually made good time, and had were able to stop off at our favorite local SF/mystery bookstore. Mia bought a couple books. I was tempted by a few things, but restrained myself.

The Staff Meeting was relatively quiet, most of colgaffneyis issues being either under control or far beyond what a single meeting can deal with. Being a member of the Board, but not the Staff, I had no official function there, but still managed to get stuck with one task.