On Thursday night my family dropped me off at the airport on our way home the west-side priory group. I flew through the night to Seattle, WA for the wedding of Todd (a good friend of several of us AllSaintsees) and Dhayoung.
Arriving early in the morning I grabbed a coffee at a little-known mom-and-pop-shop Seattle coffeehouse called “Starbucks” and began working on my essay contribution to the current Theopolis Conversation on church-planting, answering emails, and drafting sermon notes for this past Sunday.
After an hour Fr. Joe McCulley picked me up, making the hour+ drive up from Olympia to Seattle. We drove into town and got coffee at Fresh Flours Bakery in the Ballard neighborhood (more shops should have names that are puns). Catching-up with Joe+ was an absolute blessing. It was so encouraging to hear where he and his family have landed, to hear about new life and growth in their parish, and to reflect on life in ministry with one another. Before we left the coffee shop he showed me a new responsorial and gradual psalm tone he composed, which I hope to use at All Saints during Advent —its absolutely brilliant.
We left Fresh Flours and drove over to meet Fr. Casey Bedell (the rector of Harbor Anglican Church) for lunch at El Chupacabra. Fr. Casey came into Anglicanism out of the PCA and planted Harbor in the Capitol Hil district of Seattle in 2019 around the same time we were planting All Saints Honolulu. They too know what it is like to be a part of a church plant in the middle of COVID. The three of us got to fellowship together and debrief where our parishes are at, share updates, and give prayer requests. It was a rich time. The tacos al pastor were also excellent.
Afterwards we said goodbye to Fr. Joe and I went with Fr. Casey over to see the building where Harbor Church meets and to gather supplies for the following day’s wedding (which was at a different location). Then we walked around the neighborhood a bit, a run of streets filled with coffee shops, craft tea sellers, hip little restaurants, fashionable boutiques of all kinds, second-hand bookstores, and pubs of every make and model —it was like someone took SALT at Kaka’ako and multiplied it over may more miles. While walking Casey+ told me about what it is like to plant a church in a place like Seattle. It was very helpful to know how to pray for him and the whle Harbor Anglican ‘ohana.
We went back to the Bedell’s house where I got to meet Casey’s wife and two sons and was show to my lodgings down in the finished basement of their home. I got a little work done, and took a 20 min power nap before we headed over to the church where the wedding was to happen for the rehearsal.
The bride-to-be is a world-class musician and her friends, fellow parishioners, and colleagues showed-up in full strength to support her and Todd with music of the highest caliber: a choir, an organist, a pianist, a violinist, and a guitarist who sang a worship song in Korean. Fr. Casey and I split the celebrant duties: he did the “Word” portion of the service including the homily and the wedding vows, and I did the “Table” portion of the service. Rehearsal was excellent, save for the fact that we all realized how hot the building would be (it has no A/C and its windows are not jallousied) the following day with over 100 people and all of us dressed-up in our respective regalia. Rehearsal dinner was held at the groom’s family’s Airbnb over in Queen Anne.
After dinner Casey+ and I headed over to Todd’s apartment where he and his fiancée held an informal “friendsunion” for all of their out-of-town guests on the rooftop of the complex. The sun set over Elliott Bay while we fellowshipped, reunited, made news friendships. The sweet brine smell of the water washed over us as darkness fell and the cool winds blew over us. I got to do one of the things that I most love doing: making new friends. Some from Seattle, some from Portland, some from Texas, some from Korea. I hope to see some of them again soon —perhaps a few in Louisiana in January.
The next morning I went with Casey for some exercise in the Ballard area again. Just when I had finished showering-off after the work-out I received the notification that my father was gravely ill and was in the ICU, and that thing were dire. I spent the rest of the late morning and early afternoon sitting at a coffee shop downtown (thinking I might need to grab a plane that night to get to my father) writing-up sermon notes and handling some administrative things, while also keeping in touch with my family, while also checking flight times that would get me there as early as possible, while also praying, while also remembering that I had to finish the essay for the Theopolis Conversation. You might know the kind of hours where it feels like a lot happens but little gets done.
Thankfully my father reached a place of stability —miraculously, even, according to some of the doctors— and I did not have to fly-out that night to say my goodbyes.
The wedding, besides being very very warm (especially as I wore the chasuble throughout the service), was absolutely beautiful. Everything went-off without a hitch. My friends are now united in holy matrimony, and I had the honor of serving them their first Communion in that state.
The weather for the reception, held outside, was deliciously cool. The jazz band was lovely, the champagne was chilled and plenteous, and the food was Korean. It was like a little foretaste of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Highlights from my conversations during the reception: (1) a brother-in-law of Todd’s; (2) the parents of the Bride (who gave me a mason jar of authentic Doenjang Jjigae paste); (3) the music leader of Harbor Anglican, who led the choir at the wedding; (4) a medical student in residency who entered medicine late in life because he felt the Lord call him into it missionally; and (5) a fellow Theopolis student from Texas; (6) one of the editors at Logos Bible Software, who has graciously worked with me in most of my writing for them.
In the morning I left early from the Bedell’s and headed to the airport. While waiting for my flight, I checked-in with family to see how my father was doing and went-over my notes for our adult Sunday School class on worship. I bumped into some old friends from CtF who were returning from a trip to Alaska on the same flight as me. That was a real joy!
On the flight home I went back-and-forth between working on my computer (which had free starlink wifi —mahalo Elon!) and watching The Fugitive (1993) on the in-flight entertainment screen at my seat. Jim Halpert is right: “that is a really good movie… like really, really, really good.” Hidden behind a thriller-detective-crime-action film starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones is a very simple elegant story of the power Big Pharma can deploy, specifically in the way it can make those who oppose its regime sound bonkers: “You’re claiming a one-armed man killed your wife?” Also brilliant is the way in which the film keeps us on edge without having to offer us a dead body at the end of every chase of fight sequence. All the deaths happen within the first 15 or so minutes of the film. What are we cheering for then? What holds our attention rapt for its whole 2 hr and 10 running time? Here’s Twohy’s brilliant trick: what keeps us riveted is our concern for the truth. Will the truth win? Will the lie be exposed? Will the innocent be vindicated? There’s something very similar going-on in the Psalms “Vindicate me O God!” (Ps. 43:1) “Why do the nations conspire?” (Ps. 2:1) “Why do the wicked flourish?” (cf. 92:7).
Still confused as to what to make of some of the Psalms, specifically the imprecatory ones? Watch The Fugitive, it speaks the language of those who wait upon the Lord from whom comes our help (e.g. Ps. 121).