Today At Parroquia San Cristóbal San Pablo

This morning I took the services at San Pablo. Reverenda Glenda is on vacation, and at the May Clericus she kept asking me to take June 1st. You don't say no to Glenda McQueen, so I agreed. St. Paul's has an interesting history; in the Bad Old Days of the Canal Zone and its racial segregation, West Indian Anglicans weren't allowed to attend services at St. Luke's Cathedral in the Canal Zone. St. Paul's is located across the street in the "Panama" side, and it was considered "The Black Cathedral." This nasty little piece of history still affects things here in Panama; there are members of my parish who do not like to attend services at St. Luke's because of that history. I hadn't been to St. Paul's in a while, and what was once THE High Church in the diocese has changed a bit with a VTS graduate at the helm! It was good to be there again.

Last night the participants in this year's Panama Project arrived, and they were at San Pablo for the 9:00 am service. The Panama Project is a program of the Seminaries of the Episcopal Church in which students experience Anglicanism in a Central American, Panamanian context. The program is for three weeks. I participated in 1998, and was back later in the year to interview for a position with the Diocese. We've been here since 1999! Canon Walter Smith and I run the Project here in Panama, and the Revda. Nancy Eswien is our person in los Estados Unidos.

I will be very busy with the Panama Project this for the next few weeks, so blogging may be a bit sparse. Friday Red Mr. Peanut and Gallito Mescalito Blogging will happen, come hell or high water.

Photos follow


Padre preaches



Las Seminaristas. Dustin Trowbridge (General Seminary); Vivian Lam (Church Divinity School of the Pacific); Linda Hall (Church Divinity School of the Pacific). As an Alum of CDSP, I'm always happy to have participants from that school.



Two ladies at Coffee Hour

The youth group at San Pablo has really grown since Revda. Glenda took over. Their group is larger than Luz de Mañana (San Cristóbal's Youth Group). I guess the historic competition between San Pablo and San Cristóbal continues wit da yoots.



There would have been more photos, but Padre hadn't re-set the flash after Friday's Red Mr. Peanut Bank episode, so many of Mona's photos didn't come out well. My bad!