The Treble Wore Trouble (The Liturgical Mysteries) Read Online Free Page B

some differences had been made in the office area, by and large, members of the church in 1950 would have recognized the St. Barnabas they knew without any trouble.
    During the past twenty-two years that I've lived in St. Germaine, St. Barnabas Church has enjoyed the ministries of more than a few clergy and lay persons, including thirteen priests, full-time, part-time, and interim. I, myself, have not enjoyed them all. As in any working environment, I've had great friendships with several of them, a good working relationship with a few, an uneasy truce with two or three more, and a tooth-grinding tolerance of the rest. Over the years, though, I've learned to keep my head down and stay out of their way.
    I've been the part-time organist and choir director since I moved to town. I found myself in St. Germaine thanks to my college friend and roommate, Pete Moss, who at the time was the mayor. The town was looking for a police chief, and my master's degree in criminal justice and administration was just the ticket. I also have a master's in musical composition from UNC Chapel Hill, and that, paired with certain organ performance skills, landed me the position at St. Barnabas almost immediately. I marry the two professions by keeping a J.S. Bach organ score in my office at the police station and a Glock 9 mm in the organ bench. I find it handy in keeping the tenors in tune.
    As the organist and choir director, I'm invited to all the staff meetings. As the police chief, I've been in the habit of politely declining. When Gaylen Weatherall was the rector, I did manage to get to three meetings a month. When she left us to become the Bishop of the Diocese of Northern California, I scaled back my involvement in worship planning, leaving it to those full-time staff members and the Worship Committee. I still picked the hymns and chose the music for the service, but, as far as the other aspects of the service were concerned, well, I left that to the other parties.
    When Gaylen had prevailed upon Meg to take the position of the Senior Warden, Meg had done so willingly and executed the office with aplomb and capability. She'd been reelected a couple of times, but when the Rt. Rev. Weatherall took her leave, Meg retired from the position and from the vestry. When Meg retired, so did my regular attendance at worship meetings.
    Now, two interim priests and a year and a half later, the church had called a new priest to be the rector of St. Barnabas. I hadn't had anything to do with the process, and neither had Meg. We'd spoken to the candidate, of course, and I had a meeting with her when she came in to interview, but, really, I knew nothing about her other than what her curriculum vitae indicated.
 
Dr. Rosemary Pepperpot-Cohosh
 
Born: 1964
Married: Herbert (Herb) Cohosh (23 years)
Children: None
Hometown: Fonda, Iowa
 
Education: Bachelor of Arts,
Iowa Wesleyan College
 
Masters of Divinity,
Wartburg Theological Seminary
 
Doctor of Ministry,
Pacific International University
 
Ordained: 1998, Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA)
 
2004, Received into the Episcopal
Church, Diocese of Iowa
 
Employment: Walmart Associate
 
Assistant Pastor, Augustana Lutheran Church
 
Self-employed clothing design consultant
 
Supply priest (Episcopal)
 
Turn ons: Long walks on the beach, puppies, sunsets, rainbows, sharing feelings, unicorns
 
    Okay, I made that last one up, but I suspected that I wasn't far off base. We'd been exposed to the ministry of the Reverend Pepperpot-Cohosh, known to her parishioners as Mother P, since last November, and she was steadily, with the help of her husband, (also a bona fide Lutheran pastor), molding St. Barnabas into the vision that they had for the church universal.
    How did a Lutheran pastor become an Episcopal priest? Pretty easily, as it turns out. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America came into full communion with the Episcopal Church several years ago, meaning that each churches recognizes