Well it’s over.
This morning the Reverend Frater Jan Knost did the morning wake up going to and fro reciting verse. I opened my door and threw my roommate’s shoe at him (not in the Muslim insult sort of way, but rather in the yowling cat sort of way…)
We ate another lovely heavy breakfast, then gathered back in the old kitchen for a communion service conducted by the Reverend Frater Carlton Smith, after which we left to the four directions.
Driving through the snow very carefully I dropped the Reverend Doctor Frater Walt off at the Amtrak station in Framingham and then continued very, very carefully as I wound my way to Perkins School for the Blind, where I’m now waiting patiently for Jan to close the library so we can go home. Well, back to Providence, I have two meetings at church. (There is some saying about wicked and rest…)
Although as far as rest goes, I’ve enjoyed the last hour or two sitting in one of the big wing back chairs and reading at the latest Sue Grafton.
I guess the thing that most moved me since my last posting was something that the Reverend Doctor Frater Charles Gaines said. As someone called to this august body relatively early he mentioned watching the years go by. When he first arrived the oldest fraters were people whom he had read of. Later they were his mentors. Now he is one of them, contemplating the new crop. (I don’t think he actually cast a baleful glance in my direction as he came to that part…)
There is something about this little band, which has touched on the history, primarily of the Universalist stream of our faith.
I’m so honored to have been invited to be a part of this.
And, as the traditional farewell goes, “this was the best Frater’s retreat ever!”
And I look forward to our gathering again in a year…
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