A Chrismation or Ten

Saturday was a rather momentous day. My friend Patrick of the Mountain got married yesterday. Sadly, I missed it. You see, it was in Oregon, and I lack the ability to be in two places at once, as would have been necessary.

What I was able to do, though, was witness a baptism and the chrismation of ten of my friends at church! Martin came to St. Peter's a month or two after I did. Raeanne showed up a year ago. As a result of early introductions by Fr. Patrick and Pam, the three of us quickly became an odd trio of friends. Jason and Debbie arrived a week or two after Raeanne, but I'm shy, and there were no random introductions, so it was a while before I got to know them. Mark and Barb were the last of this crew to arrive. Mark came with the Z's right around the beginning of Lent, and Barb started coming with him shortly thereafter. Again, my avoidance of new people got in the way, and I really didn't start getting to know them until Pascha. My loss. These ten have turned out to be a fantastic collection of friends, so the decision to show up for church at 8:30 on a random Saturday morning was really a no-brainer.

It was interesting being on the spectator side of things this time. There were parts that I remember vividly from my baptism in April, and there were details that I had no memory of at all. It was so incredibly cool, though, having watched them all on this journey since we met, having compared notes on the different hurdles we've dealt with, to be there when they were welcomed into the Church. What a tremendous day for them all!

So, to my friends Martin, Raeanne, Jason, Debbie, Michael, Cathy, Dani, Chris, Mark, and Barb, welcome home!