Erm ...

I nearly fell off the organ bench when my friend, who shall remain nameless, shared this with me.

I haven't seen him for quite a while ... but then again, one might say I fell off the face of the planet when I took the position at St. Joseph's and the Duke U. Episcopal Centre. But still ...

Said friend shared with me that he decided to "give up going to church for Lent."

You can imagine the question marks going across my face on that one.

Me: "Erm ... did I hear you right? You're giving up going to church for Lent?"
AB: "Yup. I did."
Me (and Altar Guild lady, who overheard this conversation): !!!???!!!

Yes, AB actually admitted that the service he attended this afternoon was the first one he went to all Lent. His excuse: he caught that virus that was going around, and was bedridden for the better part of two weeks.

That, and he wasn't very keen to drive 45 minutes to get to a service. So I'm looking at him again ... surely, there are Episcopal churches closer to him than having to drive 45 minutes to the west to get to Chapel of the Cross!

All I could do was laugh, and tell AB, it was nice to see him again, but I'd need to ensure I had O Mensch, bewein' ... in the fingers before playing it as my prelude for the service ...