This week: June 2
The Maps We Carry
Author Cara Black once wrote, “The past informs the present. Memory makes the map we carry…”
This was a very busy week with many reunions and the opportunity for the English family to revisit their “journey of vocation” meeting with mentors, colleagues, and special friends. Rev. Patricia Ferris, a mentor of Robert’s, reflected, “Reconnecting provides a sense of continuity. Even though our stories together in California ended six years ago, the story of life and ministry in the church continue.”
Allison has been reflecting gratefully on the ways that her past ministry is informing her current ministry at Calvary in exciting and meaningful ways.
Mid-week, Robert flew back to Ohio while Allison and her daughters continued on to Huntington Beach, CA. This is the home of the first parish Allison served as a priest: St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church. Allison is attending a Youth Group reunion at St. Wilfrid’s this weekend, reconnecting with several young adults who participated in the youth ministry she led from 2008-2013.
Amid the reconnections, Olivia and Amelia had a chance to go “tide-pooling” at White Point Beach where they encountered hermit crabs, brittle stars, sea urchins, and even an octopus, who “inked” Olivia. And they are managing to catch some waves in “Surf City” near Huntington Beach pier.
After the detour to Huntington Beach, they will travel 50 miles north to continue the big journey Eastward on Route 66.
Per an agreement Robert and Allison made with one another before the birth of their children, Olivia was baptized at All Saints’ Episcopal Church (if she had been a boy, she would have been baptized in a Methodist Church). To even up the score, Amelia was baptized three years later at First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica.
