BMW Bluebonnet Biway Drive

Hurray for this weekend's plans!! Hurray that I get good gas mileage as well!

BMW BLUEBONNETBIWAY (B3) Drive
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Time: 8:30amLocation: Johnny Carino's in San MarcosDirections to Carinos: From Austin - Exit 204A, cross under IH 35 to the east side.From San Antonio - Exit 204
A spring favorite for many BMW drivers, Ralf & Cheryl have put another drive together for this April. This drive includes the incomparable Willow City Loop!!
Smell those sweet wild Texas flowersalready - fields of blue waving gently in the spring breeze. The drive will last about 2 to2 1/2 hours, winding through the beautiful
Texas Hill Country and coming to a close at the Longhorn Caverns State Park for a picnic. After lunch, you will be on your own to tour the caverns, if you like!
Pack your own picnic lunch and join us for a great drive!!
In case of rain, we’ll cruise up to Burnet (5 miles north) and eat at the Highlander. They have an excellent buffet. http://tejaschapter.org

The Organ @ St. A's---it's coming back!

Refer to October post about the organ at my home church.

After lots of prayers for me and for the situation by my friends who are prayer-warriors, I did make a presentation to our local ruling body, the bishop's committee, regarding memorials in general and the organ specifically. It was purchased with memorial funds from my mom's estate during the time I was music director/organist. Our little church has been in survival mode for SO LONG that the "niceties" of policies regarding church use and/or protection of memorials just hadn't come up on the radar. In my presentation, I was guided to report on just the memorials people had asked ME about during my stint on the bishop's committee in 2004, and then I asked about the organ!

Oddly enough, I didn't flush out who the organ dismantlers were, why they did it, or under whose authority they removed the pedal board, the music rack, and the external speaker from the organ and removed those from the sanctuary. (Yes, organists, it IS just a "toaster"--an electronic instrument). But I did get an apology from the senior warden and from the priest for the desecration of this memorial gift, and the SW promised it would be reassembled because he, too, misses organ music!

I'll take victories where I can get 'em, and I pray St. Andrew's can find the compromise that churches like St. Martin's (see previous post) have come to. I don't want JUST organ music, either, although that's my religious training. I also don't want the "Christian Contemporary Music" full-time, excluding organ completely.

It's my blog, and I can rant if I want to!!

Blessings upon all who blog, all who post, and all who read!

Maundy Thursday @ St. Martin's Houston,TX

Check out the architectural photos at the link below. I attended Maundy Thursday services at St. Martin's, Houston, last night, along with my friend, Steve and his girlfriend. Browse this site to see the organ and other magnificent stuff. The prelude was an IMPROVISATION between the organist and a cellist!! After I stopped crying, I had to shift into Rite ONE language, and the service proceeded in glorious fashion. There were 20 priests, servers, and acolytes working around the altar area to strip the altar, and communion before that was very efficiently done with chalice bearers working in pairs side by side, one serving evens, one serving odds.

Procession of the entire congregation, altar crew, and choir was facilitated by singing a praise chorus as we moved outdoors to a giant stone cross on the church property. "Were You There?" was started by a solo tenor, and by the time he reached the last verse, the choir had made it out the church door, and they joined in very softly in 4 part harmony.

I must say, this was a most healing, deeply spirit-renewing thing for me. I also consider it a masterful integration of Rite I Liturgy, Classical worship music (Faure by the choir), traditional hymnody (from the 1940 hymnal), AND tasteful use of a modern praise chorus for all in procession out of the church.

And the ORGAN!!!!!! OHMYGOD!!!!!
http://www.stmartinsepiscopal.org/scheyer-4.htm

Blessings to one and all this Easter weekend. dgb