Wednesday news of the church

Although I have not seen it, I'm told our beautiful church is fine.


This is the inside, from Christmas last year:


I love this church, and just this past Sunday, I stood during liturgy awed by the realization that I was indeed in a holy place. When that sense of holiness hits you, you can't help but react like Peter when he first encountered the Christ. You are made acutely aware of your own lack of holiness and want to drop to your knees and lower your gaze and say, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." Yet I'd been given the grace to stand in that holy place. Lately I've been pretty distracted, but at that moment last Sunday in church, God had my attention.

All Monday and Tuesday, I was anxious for news of the church, and finally Tuesday night heard that it had been spared from the fire.

To give you an idea of where the chuch is vis-à-vis this fires, here is an image. The church lies on Espola Road (the yellow line at the very bottom), half-way between Pomerado Road (running N-S dead center) and the fire perimeter.

(If I had better software, you'd have a better image... sorry.)

Not so fortunate are a couple from my church, Kon and Birdie Worth, who lost everything. They were awakened abruptly at 3:30am on Monday morning and told to evacuate IMMEDIATELY. When the winds are gusting at 60 mph or more, it only takes minutes to be engulfed by the flames. I'm told they have nothing. They are staying with my priest and his wife until further notice.

Although this is devastating for them, they are very resilient and positive people, with a huge outpouring of support from the church and community around them.