The Washington-Metro area is digging out from its fourth largest snowfall on record. The Northern Virginia suburbs registered from 28 t0 30 inches of snow by nightfall yesterday.
I woke up early this morning to make the 3 mile walk to Holy Comforter. A parishioner, Drew Colliaitie, picked me up half way there in his snow plow – the best ride to church I can remember in a long time.
This was the view at Holy Comforter early this morning. I’m happy to say that we celebrated two of our three Sunday liturgies with 29 at 8:45 and 49 at 10:45. Spike Behning, member of the Vestry, set up a live webcast of the service, and I understand that some 80 people watched at one point or another during the services. Our associate rector, Libby Gibson, preached a moving sermon on the lessons of the day, based on her recent experience of leading a chapel service for a homeless center in Fairfax.
People have been describing this storm in biblical terms such as “snowpocalypse” and “snowmageddon.” Compared to normal amounts of snow in Washington, I can understand. Nevertheless, a contemplative morning with friends eager to keep the feast leaves me grateful for the “snowfromheaven” that slowed us down in February of twenty-ten.
I’m a Patti Griffin fan. I first encountered her passionate and mournful voice when she opened for Shawn Colvin at the 9:30 Club in 1996 during Shawn’s “A Few Small Repairs” tour. The more I listened, and the more live performances I attended, the more her music and commitment touched me and I’ve been an avid follower ever since. She is one of America’s greatest musical treasures winning the the AMA’s highest honor as “Artist of the Year” in 2007.
Her newest album Downtown Church is a collection of Gospel style songs produced by her longtime friend and producer Buddy Miller at the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN. Downtown Church brings to life Gospel songs that have influenced contemporary music in a way that only Patty Griffin can do.
Andy Whitman of Christianity Today recently talked with Patti Griffin about the album and asked her this question:
I love “Coming Home to Me,” one of two original gospel compositions on Downtown Church. You sing “When you’re lost and you’re found and you’re found and you’re lost / When you’re dancing with no one around.” What does it mean to be lost and found in the context of the same gospel song?
Well, that’s the mystery, isn’t it? Look, we can talk about beliefs and doctrines and what have you. But when you get older, my experience has been that it’s not that simple. People are complicated. That song—like a lot of my other songs, I suppose—is trying to get at what really goes on inside, deep down. It’s about feeling alone and abandoned, and simultaneously aware that there is something or someone bigger and outside of you, and feeling connected to that. Both those things are true. It’s not one or the other. I don’t want to put a label on it. (Laughs). I guess that’s sort of a recurring theme with me, isn’t it? But both those things are true. That’s what I wanted to communicate. You’re lost and you’re found. Both those things are true.
The songs mix traditional standards (“Wade In The Water,” ”Move Up”) with country and blues spirituals (Hank Williams’ “House Of Gold,” the blues classic “If I Had My Way” and St. Francis of Assisi’s poem set to Ralph Vaughan William’s arrangement, “All Creatures of our God and King” ) and originals written by Griffin, Julie Miller and others. It would be a powerful to have Patti sing one of these songs at Holy Comforter some day. Episcopalians might leave their pews. Watch out!
