We decided to attend church at St. Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church in Issaquah, WA where the present Seattle Compline director, Jason Anderson, is the parish musician. The day before, Jason had picked me up from the airport and we had stopped here for a few minutes to pick up more champagne flutes on the way to Fall City for the Chez Hallock party.

What was a little unusual was that the service started without the rector, The Rev. Katherine Sedwick, present. Apparently she was involved with teenagers in another part of the campus and was scheduled to enter the nave after the Gospel Acclamation, just before the sermon. We got through the prelude, opening hymn, first lesson, psalm, second lesson, Gospel acclamation and even the Gospel got read (I am the way, the truth and the life), and the deacon opened the right side door. Nobody was there. After a few minutes the rector entered from the left side door!

The congregation is home to opus 1, a pipe organ built by a local builder, Rene Marceau. But as you can see in the photo below, Jason used both the organ and the piano in the service, but certainly not simultaneously!

I was especially pleased to listen to Jason’s piano playing as it was very sensitive and creative.

After the service, the man sitting next to me, asked me, “Do you know Wanda Gereben?”
“Why, yes we know her very well! ”
“She was the choir director at St. Christopher’s in Kailua where I was the rector!”
“Well, I just substituted at St. Christopher’s as the organist two weeks ago!”

The man introduced himself as Bob Brown, and I took a photo of him with his wife.

Then at the coffee hour a woman walked up to us and introduced herself as the step-daughter of Carol Rohrscheib Gregory, a former alto in the LCH choir!

It truly is a small world after all.