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The Wedding in the Library

I have a fellow intern! Rebekah Davies has been working for the National Trust and attending St Peter's Church (in Newlyn) for the past year, and she joined the Cluster team in May. We met earlier this year through Chris and Nigel Owen, who adopted us for Easter. Both passable Stitch impressionists, Rebekah and I share a childish sense of humor and a love of books. So, characteristically, we decided to spend our Saturday morning off at a book and craft sale at the Morrab Library. This was Saturday 19 May 2018--the day of the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding.

Until the day itself, I hadn't thought much about the royal wedding--because Harry isn't next in line for the throne or because my co-workers aren't vociferous Royalists, I don't know. It just didn't come up in conversation, and I didn't make special plans to watch the wedding. I thought I'd probably rather avoid all the huddles of celebrity-happy, giggling women, and escape to a library. But what do you suppose Rebekah and I found, huddled around a laptop at the front table just inside the library door? We could have politely squeezed past and gotten on with our book shopping, but we decided that we could spare fifteen minutes to wait and see THE DRESS.

For most of that time, all I could see was THE HAT worn by a woman crouched two inches away from the the computer screen. How is it that I could simultaneously feel indifferent about the royal wedding, pleased to be watching it as it was on, and furious to have my view blocked by a woman's hat? Passive-aggressive tendencies aside, I did see the dress, the chapel, the flowers, the Clooneys; all of them were lovely. At 11:00, we dispersed to search for books. I'd say the search was successful. Behold the new additions to my trove.

Since the wedding, several people have commented on Bishop Michael Curry's sermon, telling me, "You must be very proud of your bishop." As a Baptist, I'm not sure The Episcopal Church's presiding bishop is mine to be proud of. But as a white American, I get lumped into one big category with much less admirable people. I'm proud to be someone people associate with Michael Curry, and with his words:

when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well...like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My brothers and sisters, that's a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family (Curry).

Living in a foreign country (actually I'm the foreign one now, not the country) is making me very conscious of my nationality. I'm vain enough to like being obviously "different," but I'm surprised to discover that I feel more American now than ever. It's not always a proud feeling, just a particular branch of self-awareness. Everyday, I am reaffirmed in the conviction that all people are people, and that we are all brothers and sisters in one human family. And then someone notices my accent, or has to explain to me what a lord lieutenant is, and I'm reminded that my ideals and mannerisms--both things that I've analyzed over and over again my whole life--are different in ways that I've never considered before.

What's Happening

In the last two weeks of May, I visited two ecumenical monastic communities: L'Abri in Hampshire (one of an international network of communities rooted in Protestant ideals, established by Francis and Edith Schaeffer in 1955), and the Community of St Anselm (established by the current Archbishop

of Canterbury) in Lambeth Palace, London. More food for my continuing research on New Monasticism, more insights into how a monastic community could function in Penzance, more time with my friend Tanya Woodward, more hospitality from strangers, and just enough time in London to snap photos of Westminster Abbey and the London Eye (of Sauron).

It's The Little Things

  • a baby badger trundling along the side of the road

  • fluffy, peevish-faced, curvy-beaked baby seagulls

  • buttercups, English and Spanish bluebells

Sources

Curry, Michael. "The Power of Love." Royal Wedding, 19 May 2018, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Windsor, Wedding Address.

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