A good start

Our new rector, Fr. Craig, started his term on Sunday. Actually, he kicked off his tenure on Friday night, at a big pot luck dinner (which packed the parish hall), but his first services were on Sunday. And …

… the place was packed.
… folks seemed happy.

His wife is out here helping him get moved in, but will be going back to Oregon until their son graduates later this month and they can get their house sold.

Extra bonus points:

1. Managed all the local conventions for the service with exceedingly few bobbles. Sure, all Episcopal Church services are 95% similar, but that other 5% (mostly local practice — who stands where, who does what when, etc.) can mean the difference between things going smoothly and a comedy of errors. Things went smoothly.
2. He donned a chasuble (big formal “poncho”) for the Eucharistic half of the service. That’s something that’s not been traditionally done at our parish, except on very formal occaisions, but I think it adds a nice element of formality. Yeah, I know, I don’t have to wear one during hot weather …

3. He made regular use of the (very nice and underused) standard prayers in the BoCP, rather than doing a lot of improv. I love the language in the prayer book, and consider it one of the treasures of the church. Yes, he can (and showed he could) improv, but he didn’t feel he had to at every drop of a hat.

4. He can sing. Did quite nicely during the sung parts of the service.

So, for a liturgical traditionalist like me, it all went well. That his sermon was good (if a bit overlength) and he managed to draw both on the Scripture of the weekend and on the event of his arrival here, was pretty nice, too.

Hopefully that puts the cap in our search process, which will not have to be repeated for several years …

UPDATE: And, by coincidence, RLP has some interesting thoughts on order, vs. dignity, in church services.