St. Thomas Episcopal, 1 W. 53rd St. NYC

In looking at my flickr account I noticed that this picture from 2007 was receiving a lot of hits. It was my second trip to DC since moving to Penn State.

Via Flickr:(Best viewed at a larger size.)

I happened upon this gorgeous church during my walkabout. They were rehearsing for a boys/mens choir recital that night. Wonderful acoustics in this church. It was burned down in 1905 (the church, not the choir) so the vast majority of it is rebuilt.

It was interesting to see the people who came in. One woman came, knelt in the pew in front of me, crossed herself, a presumably prayed for a few minutes then left. There were the requisite tourists, mostly Scandihoovian as near as I could tell, but there was also the young businessman, in his late 20s, no coat just shirt and tie, who stopped in for a few minutes and then left. Was it devotion? TIme of prayer? A need for a cool stop on this rare 87 degree October day? Whatever it was, it made me feel better about humankind.

It was odd for me too, sitting there in suit and tie, having just been ordained a priest 70 hours earlier, yet there by happenstance, on a business trip for the uni. I was going to do afternoon prayer, but they had the old 1928 Book of Common Prayer in the pews and the words did not come fluently to me. The rabbis say that is a sure sign something is amiss. So I just enjoyed the music, took a few photos, and ambled down to the Apple Store.

 

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