Settling down

It is easy to be tourists, seeing only the quaint abandoned buildings and not really getting to know the people who live there. Fortunately, we were able to visit Thompson's Bay twice and experience more than just the usual sights. One of the keys was St. Joseph's, the small Anglican church up the hill from our anchorage. We visited two Sundays, once on St. Joseph's day and then Easter. The services were wonderful and perhaps some might say long, 2 and a half and 1 and a half hours respectively. The congregation participated enthusiastically in the service and the singing seemed like a marriage of Sacred Harp and Tahitian Choir. They sang many hymns with all the verses. People with phobias about the passing of the peace greeting should avoid this church where everyone stands, mills about, and hugs their way through the congregation, even wayward sailors. On our second visit, Vinnie ended up doing a reading while a runaway child knocked things over behind the alter, but he continued in good voice as the child was corralled by a formidable woman from the congregation. Now when we shop the grocery store ladies compliment him on his reading.