Let all things their creator bless

When Scott came to pick up the Saint Mark's banner at church to carry in procession at our diocesan flower festival, he joked, "Cold? Rainy? Blustery? Must be Flower Festival weekend!" After warm days this week, the temperature today will drop into the 30's tonight (but not below freezing, mercifully).

We awoke to a wet morning and the planners at Christ Church Cathedral, who had spent weeks imagining the layout of the street fair in the closed streets surrounding the cathedral decided to move everything inside. Even when the weather cleared it was cold and windy, so it was a wise choice. The weather did not prevent a big crowd from coming to celebrate the glory of God in nature and to hear our Presiding Bishop preach, eruditely and not without humor, mostly on what we can learn from St. Francis about nature and our place in it as part of creation.

As usual, the Missouri Botanical Garden provided the cathedral with lots and lots of flowering plants, which members of the cathedral artfully arranged into a spectacular display. It was less playful than the year that there were huge stalks of corn, more colorful than the year that nothing seemed to be in bloom and people called it the "Leaf Festival." There were lots of people from St. Mark's there, which makes me happy, because one of the things about being Episcopalians is that we are connected with our bishop and with others in our diocese, and diocesan events are one of the places that we are particularly aware of that reality. Even though we were dressed for a cold day in the street and packed into hot crowded rooms in the cathedral, it was one of the best Flower Festivals I can remember. The cathedral did a great job of engaging neighboring businesses, including the wonderful Sen Thai Restaurant as well as lots of churches. All Saints Church seemed to have about three tables, one for the youth group and two for other groups in the church. When I teased an All Saints' parishioner about having so many tables, she smiled and said "We are blooming!" Everyone's energy seemed high and it felt like a good day to be an Episcopalian. Processing with other diocesan clergy, I loved seeing so many people from all over the diocese, Episcopalians new and old, feeling our connection in Christ. I read on some e-mail list that people were speculating about whether the Presiding Bishop was not attending Pope Benedict XVI's inaugural mass because he wasn't invited (instead, the Ecumenical Officer at 815, Bishop Epting and the Bishop for Europe, Bishop Whalon will be attending). I prefer to think that the Presiding Bishop wanted to honor his commitment to preach in St. Louis today and again tomorrow, as part of the Flower Festival.